The Triune Brain in Evolution: Role in Paleocerebral Functions

by Paul D. MacLean

The brains of advanced mammals comprise an interconnected amalgamation of three main analyzers that in their structure and chemistry reflect developments identified, respectively, with reptiles, early mammals, and late mammals. The main substance of MacLean's (National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD) examination concerns comparative neurobehavioral and clinical studies related to evolutionary considerations of the structure, chemistry, and functions of the triune brain. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

Genres: Psychology, Science, Biology, Neuroscience

696 pages, Hardcover

First published January 31, 1990

Reviews

[Brad Acker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those rare historical books (of a brilliant neuroscientist) that is so breathtaking in its detail, few human beings will ever read this from cover to cover. It is a difficult read because it presents in excruciating detail with references Dr. Paul MacLean's comprehensive findings in his neuroanatomical analysis of amphibian, mammalian, and homo sapiens' brains. No one has replicated what MacLean has accomplished in over a 50+ career in neuroscience, yet certain neuroanatomists today criticize his palpable research and open-ended conclusions. Darwin and MacLean go together as brilliant scientists of earthshaking veracity.

[Steven Peterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Paul MacLean is a researcher and theorist of brain function and how it affects behavior. Indeed, I have heard it said that he is the one who coined the phrase "the limbic system." This volume, like an earlier companion work--posits a threefold distinction in brain structure--the reptilian brain (lower brainc centers such as the basal ganglia), the mamalian brain (with the limbic suystem at the center), and the cerebral cortex. He contends that we have to understand the interaction of these various centers to understand behavior.

Not an uncontroversial thesis, but it is thought provoking and suggests the complex nature of human thought and behavior. . . .