Anthropologism and an integrated approach to one degree or another persist in different periods of the Petersburg School of Psychology. V. M. Ankylosing spondylitis most interested in the ratio of giftedness and characteristics of brain morphology. He tried to explain creative abilities with the features of the reflex activity of a gifted person. At the Bechterev Institute of the Brain in pre-war research, the problem of abilities and giftedness remained on the agenda and was developed in terms of pedagogical, general, differential psychology and defectology. In the 1950s she was the subject of research B. G. Ananyev and his staff at the Leningrad Research Institute of Pedagogy. In this work, Ananiev's pedagogical anthropology was born, in particular, his concept of learning ability and the sequence of mental development of schoolchildren. In a comprehensive study of the 1960s. intelligence has become the subject and model of giftedness. Along with these studies, V. N. Myasischev and L. M. Vekker in their own ways developed the theory of abilities. A new step was taken in a comprehensive study of intellectual potential in 1990-2010s. Empirically grounded and tested in practice, the theory of intelligence as a mental experience was elaborated by M. A. Kholodnaya.