Brain Evolution Relating to Family, Play, and the Separation Call

doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1985.01790270095011

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Vol. 42 No. 4, April 1985

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Brain Evolution Relating to Family, Play, and the Separation Call

Paul D. MacLean, MD

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1985;42(4):405-417.

Abstract

• Mammals stem from the mammal-like reptiles (therapsids)that were widely prevalent in Pangaea 250 million years ago.In the evolutionary transition from reptiles to mammals, threekey developments were (1) nursing, in conjunction with maternalcare; (2) audiovocal communication for maintaining maternaloffspringcontact; and (3) play. The separation call perhaps ranks asthe earliest and most basic mammalian vocalization, while playmay have functioned originally to promote harmony in the nest.How did such family related behavior develop? In its evolution,the forebrain of advanced mammals has expanded as a triune structurethat anatomically and chemically reflects ancestral commonalitieswith reptiles, early mammals, and late mammals. Recent findingssuggest that the development of the behavioral triad in questionmay have depended on the evolution of the thalamocingulate divisionof the limbic system, a derivative from early mammals. The thalamocingulatedivision (which has no distinctive counterpart in the reptilianbrain) is, in turn, geared in with the prefrontal neocortexthat, in human beings, may be inferred to play a key role infamilial acculturation.

Author Affiliations

From the Laboratory of Brain Evolution and Behavior, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Md.

Footnotes

Accepted for publication June 29, 1984.

Adapted from the Adolf Meyer Lecture, 135th annual meeting ofthe American Psychiatric Association, Toronto, May 18, 1982.

Reprint requests to Intramural Research Program, National Instituteof Mental Health, Bethesda, MD 20205 (Dr MacLean).

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