Barb Finlay on the triune brain

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Chapter 4 endnote 51, from How Emotions are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain by Lisa Feldman Barrett.
Some context is:

“Mapping emotion onto just the middle part of the brain, and reason and logic onto the cortex, is just plain silly,” says neuroscientist Barbara L. Finlay, editor of the journal Behavior and Brain Sciences. “All brain divisions are present in all vertebrates.”

Barbara Finlay is the editor of Behavioral and Brain Sciences and an expert in evolutionary and developmental neuroscience. Barb's full quote is:

“Basically, all brain divisions are present in all vertebrates, and layers are not added on. Fish are not swimming spinal cords, and it’s silly to map emotion onto just the middle part of the brain and reason and logic onto the cortex. The idea that reptiles are quivering with lust, emotion and anger, while the average monkey is a rational philosopher, does not resonate even slightly with my impressions of the iguana-versus-monkey psyche.”[1]


Notes on the Notes

  1. Barb Finlay, personal communication, March 14, 2014.