A sense of inadequacy, three types of human brains and three signaling systems. The brain is ancient The brain of a reptile in man

Term "Signal system" was introduced by the Nobel laureate academician Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov determined that The signaling system is a system of conditioned and unconditionally reflex connections of the higher nervous system animals (including humans) and the surrounding world.
Later, when neuroscience in its research has stepped immeasurably further, the leading American brain scientist Paul D. MacLean suggested that the human brain consists of three layers, each of which corresponds to a certain stage in human evolution. These three types of brain are impaled on each other like in a nesting doll:

“We must look at ourselves and the world through the eyes of three completely different personalities, tightly interacting with each other". The human brain, McLean believes, "is equivalent to three interconnected biological computers", each of which has "its own mind, its own sense of time and space, its own memory, motor and other functions."

So, according to this theory, all people have a triune brain system, which includes:
1.reticular (reptilian) brain
2.emotional (limbic, mammalian) brain
3. visual brain (cerebral cortex, neocortex).
Reptilian brain - this is the most ancient brain, or rather a part of it. It was formed over 400 million years ago. It contains primal fears and instincts, it reacts first and its task is to keep us alive. Oddly enough, scientists believe that decisions are most often made under the influence of this particular brain. To run away or to fight, to hide or to actively pursue is the "merit" of the reptilian brain. Most of the behavioral reactions also "grow" from it, for example: aggression, indifference, composure, desire to dominate and possess. Here our behavioral patterns and habits "live", what we correlate with the concept of the instinctive. In addition, it is the reptilian brain that is responsible for survival and therefore this brain denies everything new and unknown. He rebelles against any changes that he does not understand. Let's remember this important function in the future, we will return to it later.
Limbic system ( midbrain) - "emotional brain"... Mammal brain. Its age is 50 million years, it is a heritage from ancient mammals. The limbic system found on the ancient brain is found in all mammals. She is involved in the regulation of functions internal organs, smell, instinctive behavior, memory, sleep, wakefulness, but primarily the limbic system is responsible for emotions. Therefore, this part of the brain is often called the emotional brain. Let's pay attention to this brain endows us with the ability to remember - here we immediately have a filter and a protest against changes, this is not an easy thing - the preconditioning of neural electrons. The same emotional brain sifts through information at the friend or foe level. Fear, fun, mood swings arise here. By the way, it is the limbic system that is affected by psychotropic substances, alcohol and drugs
The emotional brain does not distinguish between threats to our body and threats to our ego.... Therefore, we begin to defend ourselves without even understanding the essence of the situation. The reptilian and emotional systems of the brain have been together for 50 million years and interact very well. Therefore, it is so important to understand that these two tightly connected systems often send signals that are subsequently not always correctly interpreted.
Visual brain (cerebral cortex, neocortex). Thinking brain. This rational mind is the youngest structure. Age 1.5 - 2.5 million years. The neocortex, the cortex of the cerebral hemispheres, is responsible for the higher nervous activity... The mass of the neocortex is eighty percent of the total mass of the brain substance, and it is inherent only in humans.
The neocortex perceives, analyzes, sorts messages received from the senses. It is characterized by such functions as reasoning, thinking, decision-making, the realization of a person's creative abilities, the implementation of appropriate control of motor reactions, speech, the implementation of a Man in general. What we call intelligence. This is exactly the brain where the author's program is "registered". Based on the overall size of the brain and its convolutions - there is where to roam! The neocortex is the sixth (mental, intuitive) sense organ. Its development activates the so-called mental feeling, which allows you to feel the subtlest vibrations of the universe, DNA molecules, thoughts of other people. At this stage, analysis begins, identifying patterns, highlighting differences. It `s that. What we call consciousness. This is the part of the brain that “wants”, “can”, “should” (and other modal verbs), is unhappy and tries to take control of it.

This human brain model also essentially simulates (I emphasize here there is no absolutely direct analogy, since conceptual constructions cannot be absolutely correct, and the boundaries between phenomenal thought forms are conditional) individual consciousness and correlates with the classification of Signal systems according to the Dragon.
Zero signal system - only awareness of the energy phenomena of the base (fullness, emptiness and awareness) occurs here. These phenomena do not contain information, so the brain does not react to it (there are no signal connections between the nervous system and the brain), and awareness is not an individual function, especially of the brain, it is impersonal.
The first signaling system. The first reaction of the brain to physical, mental and mental phenomena. They can be called energy-informational. A mental-nervous reaction occurs, signals are sent to the reptilian brain. This is the manifested world, but it has no names, no descriptions, no registration, and even less analysis.
Second signaling system. In the limbic (mammalian brain), it becomes possible to register a thought due to the fact that there is a division into thought and "something else" - mental emptiness. Like a frame in film, it is limited by a transparent border - the absence of an image, but it is this image that allows you to select the filled frame and register it. And so it is registered, grasped, realized and held. It is in this brain that the registration of a mental phenomenon - thought takes place. It seems to us that we "began to think." In the first signaling system, thoughts are also present, but no one knows about these thoughts themselves, but the reptilian brain does not realize that these are thoughts. In the second signaling system, registration takes place, but even here the mammalian brain does not at all pretend to be the author of thoughts and is related to their origin.
Only in the third signal system, which, as is clear, corresponds to The "crown of brain evolution" - the neocortex (cerebral cortex) that notorious "infection" takes place, because it is here that the thought of "I" or "the author's program" appears (let us pay attention not "arises", but it is contextually interpreted). And now the whole interpretation takes place through the prism of the author's context.

But all 3 parts of the brain work with each other in a very connected, clear and synchronous manner. The emergence of the "author's program" is necessarily tested by the limbic brain, and then "descends" into the reptilian department. Naturally, neither the midbrain, let alone its lower part, had ever heard of any "I-programs", since they originated much earlier in evolutionary development than the cerebral cortex, where this program is "prescribed." And these sections of the brain, as they can, inform us about the "failure", "virus", "impostor". From here comes sensory responses, reactions of the emotional brain, which, again the neocortex interprets as a feeling of insufficiency , in fact, the organism " asks for synchronization"between all three" interconnected biological computers ".

It's time to write about what models of the functioning and structure of the brain I adhere to so that in the future we will be on the same wavelength. Naturally, these are only models and their "all-embracing" is limited by their own framework. But the brain, comrades, is such a Solaris that if we do not even have an approximate idea of \u200b\u200bhow it works, then we will drown in false premises regarding someone else's and our own behavior. Because in what happens to us in life, the share of conscious actions and logical thinking is negligible, and our behavior is constantly under the unconscious influence of emotions. I will not open America here, but it will be useful to have a common base for further communication. To start:

McLean's Triune Brain Model

The central part, or brain stem, is the so-called ancient brain, the reptilian brain. On top of it is the midbrain, old brain, or limbic system; it is also called the mammalian brain. And, finally, on top is the human's own brain, more precisely, of the great apes, because it is present not only in humans, but, for example, in chimpanzees. This is the neocortex, or cerebral cortex.

Ancient brain, reptile brain is responsible for performing the simplest basic functions, for the daily, every second functioning of the body: breathing, sleep, blood circulation, muscle contraction in response to external stimulation. All these functions are preserved even when consciousness is turned off, for example, during sleep or during anesthesia. This part of the brain is called the reptile brain, since it is the reptiles that are the simplest living things that have a similar anatomical structure. Run-or-fight behavior is often referred to as a reptile brain function.

Midbrain, limbic system worn over the ancient brain is found in all mammals. It is involved in the regulation of the functions of internal organs, smell, instinctive behavior, memory, sleep, wakefulness, but primarily the limbic system is responsible for emotions (therefore, this part of the brain is often called the emotional brain). We cannot control the processes taking place in the limbic system (except for the most enlightened comrades), but the reciprocal connection between consciousness and emotions exists constantly.

Here is a comment gavagay on the same occasion: "Direct dependence [ between consciousness and emotions] is not there - therefore we have no choice, say, to be scared or not. We get scared automatically, in response to an appropriate stimulus from outside. But an indirect connection is possible and for some situations it is very significant. The work of the limbic system depends on signals coming into it from the outside, including from the cerebral cortex (through the thalamus). And our consciousness nests in the bark. It is because of this that we will be afraid of the gun pointed at us - even if we have never been shot. But a savage who does not know what a pistol is will not be afraid. And, by the way, precisely because of the presence of this mediated dependence, in principle, such a phenomenon as psychotherapy is possible. "

Finally, neocortex, cerebral cortex, is responsible for higher nervous activity. It is this part of the brain that is most strongly developed in Homo sapience and determines our consciousness. Here rational decisions are made, planning is carried out, results and observations are assimilated, logical problems are solved. We can say that our "I" is formed in this part of the brain. And the neocortex is the only part of the brain, the processes in which we can consciously track.

In humans, all three parts of the brain develop and mature in that order. A child comes to this world with an already formed ancient brain, with a practically formed midbrain and with a very "unfinished" cerebral cortex. During the first year of life, the ratio of the brain of a newborn to the size of an adult increases from 64% to 88%, and the brain mass doubles, and by 3 to 4 years it triples.

Now it is clear why emotions play a decisive role in raising children. Children do not act to spite you, they do not seek to manipulate you, careful planning is needed for manipulation. And they are driven by basic emotions: the desire for contact and closeness, fear, anxiety. When we understand this, it will become much easier to understand the child.

And we ourselves, adults, are not as rational beings as we would like to think. Sue Gerhardt (Sue Gerhardt, Why Love Matters: how affection shapes a baby's brain) wrote about this wonderfully:

“It can be ironically noted that the latest discoveries of neurophysiology have found that feelings play in our lives big rolethan the mind. All our rationality, so respected by science, is based on emotions and cannot exist without them. As Antonio Damasio points out, the rational parts of our brain cannot work in isolation, but only simultaneously with the parts responsible for basic regulatory functions and emotions. “Nature has built a rational system (apparatus) not just on top of the biological regulation system, but of her and inseparable from her "(Antonio Damasio, Descarte" s Error). "

Picture from here: Carl Sagan "Dragons of Eden".

Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon lived in the same natural landscape together for 50-24 thousand years. The Neanderthals died out, but the Sapiens remained. In ancient man, the size of the brain was 1600-1800 cm3. Average volume modern man is 1400 cm3. And as a result, 250 cm3 was lost in 25 thousand years, which is very significant. This is explained by the social nature of modern man, and by the fact that society takes on a lot of the functions that the individual performed in the past.

But such reasoning cannot be recognized as obvious. First, social relations have always existed at all stages of human evolution, therefore, they should have been structurally realized in the development of the brain even at the stage of lower apes. Secondly, social relations only became more complicated, and, therefore, the brain, which supposedly serves them, should become more complicated. Thirdly, maybe such a decrease in brain size indicates a banal degradation of some brain structures developed in our venerable ancestors, due to the uselessness of a modern person?

I will try to describe a hypothesis explaining the evolution of our brains. Let's start with that ancient man who did not yet know how to use various devices, but only started to master them. Each of us goes through this difficult period his life from 1 to 4 years. At this moment, the size of the brain, referred to the size of the body, is the largest. In the process of development, skills are acquired to use a variety of objects, and gradually the ratio of the sizes of the brain and body changes towards the body. We think this is natural, since everything happens during the growth of the body.

Ancient man, not possessing adaptations (obsidian knife, spearheads, arrows, etc.), had to replace the absence of these things with the complexity of their behavior, but at the same time have the potential for the development of technology. Consequently, his brain was more loaded with information about the world around him. Moreover, all the information was vital.

Further development was accompanied by the invention of more advanced tools and weapons (spears and arrowheads for them), the use of fire for making tools and cooking has led to the degradation of the part of the brain responsible for fighting predators with bare hands, night vigil, finding food that can be consumed without the use of fire. The flexible structure of the evolving Cro-Magnon brain made it possible to replace the lost structures with new ones responsible for associations. The development went in the direction of the development of creative abilities, but in terms of volume, less costs are needed for them than for the struggle with the objective circumstances of life in the absence of tools and weapons. Consequently, during replacement, there was a reduction in the volume of incoming information and in the size of the brain.

Each new invention replaced some function of the brain, and led to the degradation of some departments and the development of others. The information coming from the outside world lost its vital importance, and acquired social importance. The invention of javelin throwing saved mankind from the need to get close to the animal when hunting, which reduced the brain, for example, by 10 cm3, and the invention of the bow by another 10 cm3. Since inventions influenced the brain in a complex way in many ways simultaneously, then overall effect turned out to be so significant (250 cm3). If we assume that the degradation of the brain is associated with the stages of inventions that took on part of the functions compensated for by previously complex human behavior, then modern computerization replaces the computational abilities of a person and, in a complex, many other functions. Following the logic of the substitution hypothesis, 2-3 generations will pass and a person will lose another 200 g of brain and approach Homo erectus, from which he originated. I wish you success!

The thesis is any appearance of a new instrument for business +, for brains -. Laziness may have made us human, but it hasn't made us smarter.

Friday 28 Dec 2012

Four? Why four?

The fact is that I consider all three of its floors together, which are traditionally divided:

reptilian brain, limbic brain and neocortex, and in the neocortex, I consider both hemispheres separately, each of which performs completely different functions.

Moreover, I can count even six structures in the brain, and if at the same time I imagine the last floor as consisting of two apartments, then the last, sixth, structure turns out to be, as it were, a corridor connecting them ( corpus callosum):

• three levels of the reptilian brain (bulb, cerebellum, hypothalamus),
• limbic level (which, in turn, can be divided into two parts),
• two hemispheres at the level of the cortex.

Each area of \u200b\u200bthe brain has separate, specific functions, but all of these areas are interconnected.

It seems to be about the work of a close-knit team, where everyone fulfills their own role and has a special specialization, so that at any moment his partners can count on his help.

Traditionally, there are three floors, or levels, - or three different "brains" - each of which corresponds to one important stage in the evolution of species (phylogeny).

1. Reptilian brain It includes the reticular formation that controls wakefulness and sleep, as well as the hypothalamus, which is slightly larger than the little fingernail, and controls all our vital functions: hunger, thirst, sexuality, thermoregulation and metabolism.

In addition, it is directly interconnected with the pituitary gland, which, with a weight of less than one gram, is fully responsible for the overall endocrine balance in the body.

Thus, we are talking about our center of instincts, which, in particular, governs our aggressive food and sexual reactions (see Perls' first book: Ego, Hunger and Aggression).

He constantly takes care of the constancy of homeostatic equilibrium and, therefore, monitors the state of our internal environment, which arises here and now.

This floor already exists at precursors of mammals - reptiles, hence its name.

It functions in newborns, and also begins to turn on in the case of "altered states of consciousness" or during a coma. As a rule, in the process of the formation and formation of our emotions, it plays the role of an energy activator. This is a kind of basement machine room - a source of electricity and heat, a regulator of water supply and sewerage.

2. Limbic brain (From Latin limbus - edge, border) appears in birds and lower mammals, allows them to overcome the innate stereotypes of behavior (instincts) communicated by the reptilian brain, which may turn out to be ineffective in new, unusual situations. In particular, it includes the hippocampus, which plays a major role in the processes of memorization, and the amygdala, which controls our emotions.

Mac Ling identifies six main emotions: desire, anger, fear, sadness, joy, and tenderness.

The limbic system, giving an emotional coloring to our experience, contributes to learning, 'those behaviors that deliver' pleasant 'will intensify, and those that entail' punishment 'will gradually be rejected.

So there is a deep connection between memory and emotion. Thanks to this connection, the results of the learning process are recorded and conditioned reflexes are developed. In the course of work in Gestalt, any emotional manifestation, as a rule, entails associated memories and, conversely, any significant memory is accompanied by a corresponding emotion.

The limbic system allows us to integrate our past, or at least "rewrite" it by including there restoring, that is, contributing to its reprogramming, pieces of experience.

The limbic system produces endorphins (the body's natural morphines) that regulate pain, anxiety and emotional life. However, if the vital anxiety decreases too much, then a sweet euphoria ensues, entailing indifference and passivity: our brain itself is a poppy head.

In addition, it releases numerous neurotransmitters.

One of them - dopamine(awareness hormone) - regulates alertness, attention, emotional balance and a sense of pleasure. He thus turns out to be a polyvalent causative agent of sexual desire, devoid of any specificity.

Some biologists have linked schizophrenia to excess dopamine, which is activated by amphetamines and suppressed by some neuroleptics. LSD and dopamine are fixed on the same receptors. Orgasm - an experience associated with the processes occurring in the brain, and mainly in its limbic region, can lead to a fourfold increase in the secretion of endorphins (and, as a result, a feeling of satisfaction and the abatement of pain).

This hypothalamic-limbic " central brain"Would probably correspond to what is colloquially called" heart ". It turns out that our heart is not in the chest, but in the head!

The centroencephal is responsible for maintaining physiological and psychoaffective balance, for limited homeostasis (of the internal environment), while the cortex - our main support in relations with the environment - will participate in general homeostasis (Labori), maintaining balance between the body and its environment ... ...

3. Neocortex is the gray matter of the cerebral cortex that occurs in higher mammals. Its thickness is from 2 to 4 mm, and its "smoothed" the surface could take a square with a side length of 63 cm.

It serves as a support for those activities that are associated with reflection and creativity, and in humans it is also associated with imagination and will.

It is there that the various sensations coming from the outside world are registered and sorted.

Then, here (in the associative divisions), they are grouped into significant perceptual images, which leads to the integration of the bodily scheme and volitional motor act (lateral lobes).

It is there that our image of the surrounding world is built, oral speech and written language develop, allowing us to free ourselves from the power of immediate, momentary experience and move from repetition to foresight, and then to prediction (prospecting). Foresight is based on the totality of experience recorded in the limbic system, and is an extrapolation of what is known from the past to probable future events; so, in reality, the foresight of the future comes from the present. Prediction (prospect, or futurology) works in the opposite direction.
Prediction anticipates, anticipates the image of the desired future and, on this basis, concludes what actions in the present will be effective for preparing such a future: it is directed from the future to the present.

In our cortex there is also dissymmetry between its anterior and posterior parts (lateral lobes / frontal lobes), which is mentioned much less often in the literature.

Frontal lobes, especially developed in humans (30% of the surface of the cortex versus 17% in chimpanzees and 7% in dogs), are the main organ of conscious attention, will and freedom: This is where our self-critical judgments, decisions and plans are developed.

Lesions of the frontal lobes entail excessive dependence in relation to the external environment: the border disappears in a biophysiological "fusion".

Patients acquire an almost automated behavior of consumption or imitation

(I.e to "shameless" behavior (F. Lhermitte. Autonomie de l'homme et lobe frontal. - Bull. Academic nat. Medec, No. 168, pp. 224-228, 1984), and due to their perception of the outside world:

if they see a hammer, they beat it, if they see a bottle, they drink it, but if they see a bed, they go to sleep; their interlocutor makes a gesture - they imitate him.

The frontal regions are the antagonists of the lateral regions, which give us information about the environment: they suppress them and thus allow us to make conscious choices with a freely chosen mode of behavior. They inhibit automatic and blind responses - a consequence of external influences and previously experienced influences.

Thus, our autonomy is manifested in the ability to say "no" to unsuitable external requests for us. ...

Memory and forgetting

Short-term, unfolded, labile working memory is created due to short-term (from 30 to 40 seconds) intersynaptic cortical connections, it is this memory that allows me, for example, to keep a phone number in my head for the time it takes to dial it.
Short-term memory, which can last from many minutes to several hours, is apparently encoded and embedded in the limbic structures (hippocampus, etc.).

However, long-term (indelible) memory includes the process of transferring information into the neocortex, in different parts of which its subsequent simultaneous storage takes place. Memory write - difficult processoccurring in both hemispheres of the head mog.

In reality, memories are not stored in any specific material structures (like books in a library), but rather are like traces, a clearing left by information on neural pathways: electricity - just like people - it is better to walk along specially laid paths (in a broad sense, one could say that a straightened sheet of paper retains the memory of a fold).

Thus, the brain can bring information into matter, giving it a new shape(Gestaltung) ARN (ribonucleic acid) molecular structure.

Long-term memory includes, first of all, the recording of information in instantaneous or short-term memory at the level of the limbic structures of the brain (hippocampus, etc.).

You could say that I take photographs with the sensitive and fragile layer of the occipital cortex, develop them in the chemistry laboratory of my limbic brain, and after fixing I print several copies (for reliability) and send them with different messengers along the corridors of my cortex.

Continuing to use metaphors, why not mention working memory - active temporary memory from the screen of my computer, which I can change or erase at any time, and external memory from disk, on which it will remain, even if I turn off my attention.

All this, of course, operates according to the program « dead»Memory, s written in the genetic code of my cells (or directly in the computer itself) and driving my reptilian brain's instincts...

Some authors believe that coding and transfer operations in order to preserve memories of the events of the day are carried out every night during "paradox" sleep (dream work) (for example, the exclusion of the paradoxical sleep phase in rats does not allow them to remember what they have learned by day. Guy Lazorthes. le Cerveau et l'Esprit. Paris, Flammarion, 1982).

Adhering to this hypothesis, one could say that dreams - this:

• not only the manifestation of the unconscious, making its way into consciousness,
• but also the manifestation of consciousness, making its way to the unconscious (processing our store of information).

However, it is known that a short coma can erase the memories of those hours that preceded the accident (post-traumatic coma). ...

THREE FLOORS OF THE BRAIN

Reptilian brain - paleencephalus, hypothalamus: appetite, sexuality, reticular formation: awakening + pituitary gland: endocrine regulation, vital energy (impulses), innate automatisms, functions - vital (instinct) and / or vegetative, hunger, thirst, sleep, sexuality, aggressiveness, sense of territory, thermo- and endocrine regulation. Maintaining internal homeostasis, integrating the present (thanks to biochemical self-regulation), this is the "lower" brain (functions in newborns and during coma).

Limbic brain - hippocampus: memory, amygdala: emotions (connection with the frontal lobes), emotional subjective experience, memory and emotion, acquired skills: conditioned reflexes and automatisms acquired through affectively colored behavior (rewards and punishments, pleasure and pain, fear or attachment) , integration of the past (thanks to emotionally colored memorable events), "central" brain.

Neocortex - reptiles archentsefol, sensitive areas, motor areas, associative areas, frontal lobes (decision making), creative imagination thinking, intelligent and autonomous behavior, adapted to the original situation of the moment, as well as imagination that contributes to a prospective vision of the future, building the future (thanks to reflective consciousness), "Higher" brain.

Subcortical structures - centracephalus(aggregate reptilian and limbic brain), white matter (continuation of neurons: axons and dendrites), heart, limited homosostasis (constancy of the composition of the internal environment), (congenital / stereotyped / acquired) modes of behavior (impulses) - unconscious \\ (automatisms)

Cortical structures of the cortex - neocortex, gray matter (cell bodies of neurons), head, general homeostasis (adaptation of the whole organism to the environment), free behavior, consciousness. ...

Based on the book: “Gestalt - Contact Therapy” - Ginger S., Ginger A.

Ancient

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