The function and effects of the reptilian part of the brain

pagancornflake

It would be great if someone could tell me how the reptillian part of the brain affects and interacts with the rest of our brains, and what behaviours it is responsible for in humans. I googled it ofc, but I got a series of completely different accounts.

As far as I know, it is responsible for regulating normal body functions, similar to other vertibrates, but is it true that it is also responsible for some social behaviors such as territorial agression in humans?

JuliusCaesar

The idea of the 'reptilian' brain has fallen out of use in the scientific arena, although it has remained popular in pop psych. This is a good read on developments since the reptilian brain was proposed in the 60s: "Over the past 30 years, however, research in comparative neuroanatomy clearly has shown that complex brains—and sophisticated cognition—have evolved from simpler brains multiple times independently "

The limbic system or brainstem are I think probably what you are referring to.

Pete4779

pagancornflake wrote: »

It would be great if someone could tell me how the reptillian part of the brain affects and interacts with the rest of our brains, and what behaviours it is responsible for in humans. I googled it ofc, but I got a series of completely different accounts.

As far as I know, it is responsible for regulating normal body functions, similar to other vertibrates, but is it true that it is also responsible for some social behaviors such as territorial agression in humans?

what are you possibly referring to the is the Triune Brain Theory. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triune_brain

As with a lot of psychological theories and subsequent practice, the one size fits all model (e.g., Psychoanalysis, Psychopharmacology, CBT, DBT, etc., ) rarely works absolutely and doesn't take into account evolution, genetics, etc., . In reality you need to hold all of the information on all of those things at once to get a grasp of where things are at now.

I recommend Derek Denton's book The Primordial Emotions http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Primordial-Emotions/Derek-Denton/e/9780199203147 as a starting point.

Basically, it is of course inarguable that primitive parts of the brain look after e.g., breathing (i.e., you don't use your pre-frontal cortex for it, it runs itself). Likewise, in controlling anger and rage, you will use your prefrontal cortex to a much greater degree to regulate emotional responses and stop you for example, punching someone because you have that ability, beyond a primitive animal.