Natalia Petrovna Bekhtereva (Russian: Наталья Петровна Бехтерева; 7 July 1924 – 22 June 2008) was a Russian neuroscientist and psychologist who developed neurophysiological approaches to psychology, such as measuring the impulse activity of human neurons. She was a participant in the documentary films The Call of the Abyss (Russian: Зов бездны) and Storm of Consciousness (Russian: Штурм сознания), which aroused wide public interest.
Vladimir Bekhterev's granddaughter, she was orphaned after her father's execution during the Great Purge of 1938. She survived the Siege of Leningrad and in 1959 she became a Doctor of Medicine. She rose to become Director of the Soviet Institute for Experimental Medicine, which she administrated between 1970 and 1990. She worked as editor-in-chief of the academic journals Human Physiology (1975–1987) and International Journal of Psychophysiology (1984–1994).
She was the founder of the Institute for Human Brain, operating under the auspices of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, of which she was elected a member in 1981. She was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1984 and the USSR State Prize for 1985. In 1972 she was also awarded the Wiener Medal in Cybernetics by the American Society for Cybernetics.
