Hello all,
Through this blog, I would like to share a remarkable observation. The Vedantic/Upanishadic teaching on mind and intellect and their functions resembles a striking similarity to brain science. Very similar to the teachings of the Vedanta philosophy concerning the use of the intellect to control the mind is the Triune Brain Model by American neuroscientist, Dr. Paul D. MacLean, proposed in the 1960s.
According to this model/hypothesis, the human brain is composed of three parts: the Reptile brain, the Mammal brain (also known by other names: the Animal brain, the Limbic System, the paleo-mammalian brain, the emotional brain), and the Human brain (also called as the neo-mammalian brain or the neocortex).
The Reptilian brain comprises brainstem and cerebellum, and is responsible for functions that run on an auto-pilot in our bodies. E.g., blood circulation, temperature, heart beat, and unconscious breathing. This part of the brain was the first to be developed in the early life forms and reptiles, and therefore, it is the oldest part in the evolution of brain.
The Limbic System is responsible for functions responsible for emotions, habits, feelings, stress, fear, anxiety, sexual drive, etc. It is mainly constituted of the amygdala (responsible for fear, threat perception), hippocampus (responsible for habits, memories, emotional response, etc.), thalamus, hypothalamus, olfactory bulb. This part was the second to evolve in the brain, and plays a predominant role in the animals.
The Human brain or the neocortex is the latest to evolve, and is predominant in homo sapiens. As the evolution of life forms has progressed from animals to homo sapiens, the proportion of the neocortex has increased. The neocortex is responsible for higher order thinking skills, rationalising, cognition, language understanding, visual processing, auditory processing, etc.
The reptilian brain is predominant in the lower life forms such as reptiles, the animals have a predominant limbic system, whereas the neocortex is more developed in the human beings.
The higher number of folds (called gyri and sulci) in the neocortex means higher cognitive (intellectual) skills.
This Triune Brain model is remarkably similar to the teachings of the Vedanta. The Limbic System can be compared to the mind (मन) whereas the Neocortex can be compared to the Intellect (बुद्धि).
Another similarity that I observed is between the famous “human body and chariot” analogy in the Upanishads and the brain science.
The sensory information (horses signify the senses ) first goes to the limbic system (the rein signifies the mind), and then it is processed in the neocortex (the charioteer signifies the intellect). For example, all the sensory information except the smell passes through the thalamus in the limbic system, and then to the respective lobes {frontal (for decisions, rational thinking), parietal, occipital (for visual processing)} of the neocortex. The smell information passes through the olfactory bulb in the limbic system, and then to the temporal lobe in the neocortex. There exist bi-directional and consistent communication between the limbic system and the neocortex, similar to the Vedantic teaching of the intellect’s role to control/direct/discipline the mind.
I have made a video on the same: https://youtu.be/_dWbgaYWQRw
Thank you for going through the blog.
The Opining Indian 