Anatomy of the Brain

Paul D. MacLean (1990) assumes that our brain has developed in stages. In simple terms, one could imagine it as a kind of "brain building" with different processing teams. Brain stem: Regulates our fundamental basic survival instincts via reflexively controlled neural circuits. Limbic system (1st floor of our thought building) This system enabled living beings to connect information from the environment with information from the inner world. This forms the basis for emotional experience and enables limited initial decision-making behaviour. Cerebral cortex: Our executive floor. This enables us to consciously process sensory stimuli, i.e. all those processes that characterize human beings as such (thinking, planning, decision-making, etc.). Furthermore, the cerebral cortex has strong connections to both the limbic system and the brain stem, which is of central importance for the processing of stimuli. In order to cope with the complex demands of our living environment, it is particularly important that the three parts, which exist largely independently of each other, work together harmoniously with their specific functionalities.