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No, your self-appellation aside, you are not missing anything unless there is some really secret 'nuance' hidden in the paper. If the triune brain model was co

No, your self-appellation aside, you are not missing anything unless there is some really secret 'nuance' hidden in the paper. If the triune brain model was completely false (as stated by the caricature of "brain is not an onion with a tiny reptile"), it would not be straightforward to even identify the neocortex -- how do you know it is 'neo', what is it a 'neo' of and so on? So the fact that we can meaningfully talk about these areas of the brain suggests that there is in fact continuity and building-upon happening in our evolutionary journey, although of course it's not like the cartoon they show (which I have never seen before from anyone seriously talking about this topic, I might add).

lolinder 3y ago
> If the triune brain model was completely false (as stated by the caricature of "brain is not an onion with a tiny reptile"), it would not be straightforward to even identify the neocortex -- how do you know it is 'neo', what is it a 'neo' of and so on? This is a sort of proof-by-etymology and it isn't very persuasive. We have all kinds of words that derive from misunderstandings that have stuck, even long after the original misunderstanding was resolved. The geographical equivalent of this would be to say "we call them Indians, so they must have originated from India at some point!" It's entirely possible that as our understanding of the brain evolves, this layered-over-time model will be seen as a quaint misunderstanding, but we'll still use the original names for the sub-organs because there's too much inertia to change them.
armada651 3y ago
> If the triune brain model was completely false (as stated by the caricature of "brain is not an onion with a tiny reptile"), it would not be straightforward to even identify the neocortex -- how do you know it is 'neo', what is it a 'neo' of and so on? I don't think that the intention of the article is to say it's completely false. It's that there is no neat evolutionary separation between the different parts of the brain. The "reptile" brain in humans is not truly the brain of a tiny reptile. We inherited a similar structure, but it evolved with us just like the rest of our brain. The same goes for the tiny reptiles we see today, their brains also evolved alongside them. If we truly had a tiny reptile inside our brain then logically we could simply study the behavior of tiny reptiles if we wanted to study that part of the human brain. Which is probably the kind of misconception the authors of the article want to refute.

lolinder 3y ago

> If the triune brain model was completely false (as stated by the caricature of "brain is not an onion with a tiny reptile"), it would not be straightforward to even identify the neocortex -- how do you know it is 'neo', what is it a 'neo' of and so on? This is a sort of proof-by-etymology and it isn't very persuasive. We have all kinds of words that derive from misunderstandings that have stuck, even long after the original misunderstanding was resolved. The geographical equivalent of this would be to say "we call them Indians, so they must have originated from India at some point!" It's entirely possible that as our understanding of the brain evolves, this layered-over-time model will be seen as a quaint misunderstanding, but we'll still use the original names for the sub-organs because there's too much inertia to change them.

armada651 3y ago

> If the triune brain model was completely false (as stated by the caricature of "brain is not an onion with a tiny reptile"), it would not be straightforward to even identify the neocortex -- how do you know it is 'neo', what is it a 'neo' of and so on? I don't think that the intention of the article is to say it's completely false. It's that there is no neat evolutionary separation between the different parts of the brain. The "reptile" brain in humans is not truly the brain of a tiny reptile. We inherited a similar structure, but it evolved with us just like the rest of our brain. The same goes for the tiny reptiles we see today, their brains also evolved alongside them. If we truly had a tiny reptile inside our brain then logically we could simply study the behavior of tiny reptiles if we wanted to study that part of the human brain. Which is probably the kind of misconception the authors of the article want to refute.