In <6i7fgt$7bd at inferno.mpx.com.au> tael at world.net (tael) writes:
>>I was wondering if anyone could evaluate my hypothesis that:
>>Our psychology is the outcome of interaction between the basic drives
>from the paleomammalian (limbic mid-brain) and reptillian (lower brain
>core) system,
"YOUR" hypothesis sounds suspiciously like (borrows language from)
Maclean's rather old model (nerly 1/2 century ago)...
which are hardwired from birth,
ARE THEY?
and the degree to which
>our cerebral cortex learns its stucture
(becomes mylinated)
TWO DIFFERENT CONCEPTS/PROCESSES? All brain structures develop under
the influence of social and other experiences; not the gross structure,
but refinements within the overall scheme--a few less synapses here and
there, depending on use or disuse, etc., and of course the
"programming" of the surviving circuits. "Primitive" areas are not
isolated from these processes.
Doubt there is evidence to support idea that myelination is so
influenced. Plasticity seems to be more on level of changes in numbers
and types of receptors as well as in "programmed" interneuron
connections.
One example (relevant to your interests): Meaney and collaborators
(Michael Meaney?? should know; met him when he spoke at NY Academy of
Sciences a couple of weeks ago) have through an elegant series of
studies shown the influence of early stress and maternal care oon later
stress responses to be mediated by serotonin effects on glucocorticoid
receptors in--prefrontal cortex, I believe (NOT in several other areas
looked at).
Frank LeFever
New York Neuropsychology Group
from the
>stimulus of social processes.
>>>btw, do you know of any books that argue along these lines?
>>TY,
>>jonny walker
>>student of B. Psychophysiology, Swinburne Uni, Melbourne, Australia.
>>>