Harris James C
Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA.
Physiol Behav. 2003 Aug;79(3):525-31. doi: 10.1016/s0031-9384(03)00158-6.
Paul MacLean has investigated integrated brain functioning through selected brain lesions in animals that disturb circuits necessary for complex behaviors, such as social displays. MacLean is unique in his comparative neurobehavioral approach that emphasizes the evolutionary origins of parenting and social behaviors and the implications of brain changes in the evolution from reptiles (social displays) to mammals (nursing, audiovocal communication, play) to man (self-awareness, intentionality, social context) that link affect and cognition. Subjectively, how "looking with feeling toward others," the basic element in empathy, evolved has been a central concern of his. Neuroimaging studies of social cognition, mother-infant communication, moral behavior, forgiveness, and trust are consistent with particular brain systems being activated in cooperative social behaviors. The identification of mirror neurons is pertinent to MacLean's model of isopraxis and studies of thalamocortical resonances may be pertinent to his neurobehavioral models. Studies of behavioral phenotypes in human neurodevelopmental disorders are consistent with MacLean's model of brain circuits being linked to complex behaviors during development. In autistic disorder, the behavioral phenotype involves disrupted social communication, deviant imaginative play, and motor stereotypies. In Lesch-Nyhan syndrome (LNS), self-injury occurs in individuals with normal sensory systems intact who require and request physical restraint to prevent self-injury; they ask for assistance from others to prevent them from harming themselves. Autism involves the lack of subjective awareness of others intentions and LNS involves a failure in self-regulation and self-control of self-injurious behavior. MacLean's models laid the groundwork for studies focused on understanding brain functioning in these conditions.
保罗·麦克林通过在动物身上制造特定的脑损伤来研究大脑的整合功能，这些脑损伤会扰乱复杂行为（如社交展示）所需的神经回路。麦克林独特的比较神经行为学方法强调养育和社会行为的进化起源，以及从爬行动物（社交展示）到哺乳动物（哺乳、听觉-发声交流、玩耍）再到人类（自我意识、意向性、社会背景）的进化过程中大脑变化的影响，这些变化将情感与认知联系起来。从主观上来说，作为同理心基本要素的“带着情感看向他人”是如何进化的，一直是他关注的核心问题。对社会认知、母婴交流、道德行为、宽恕和信任的神经影像学研究表明，在合作性社会行为中，特定的脑系统会被激活。镜像神经元的识别与麦克林的模仿行为模型相关，而丘脑皮质共振的研究可能与他的神经行为模型相关。对人类神经发育障碍行为表型的研究与麦克林关于大脑回路在发育过程中与复杂行为相关联的模型一致。在自闭症谱系障碍中，行为表型包括社交沟通障碍、异常的想象性玩耍和运动刻板行为。在莱施-奈恩综合征（LNS）中，感觉系统正常的个体却会出现自我伤害行为，他们需要并请求身体约束以防止自我伤害；他们会向他人寻求帮助以防止自己伤害自己。自闭症涉及缺乏对他人意图的主观意识，而LNS则涉及自我伤害行为的自我调节和自我控制失败。麦克林的模型为专注于理解这些情况下大脑功能的研究奠定了基础。
