Paul D. MacLean

Paul D. MacLean ( born May 1, 1913 in Phelps, New York, † 26 December, 2007 Potomac, Maryland) was an American neuroscientist. He provided valuable contributions to physiology, psychiatry and brain research.

Biography

Paul D. MacLean was born as the third son of a Presbyterian minister. In 1935, he received his bachelor's degree in English Literature from Yale University. Then he wanted to study philosophy in Edinburgh ( Scotland). After a familial case of illness instead he spent a year with the completion of his pre-med studies in Edinburgh. His medical degree was awarded in 1940 MacLean also from Yale University.

From 1942 to 1946 and during the Second World War, MacLean served as a medical officer in the U.S. Army. During his service in New Zealand MacLean worked with Dr. Averill Liebow on highlighting the diphtheria bacillus as a cause of tropical ulcers. They paved the way for successful prevention and treatment.

After 1946, he left the Army, he practiced medicine in Seattle and got a job in medical school ( " Medical School " ) at the University of Washington. From 1947 to 1949 he was a USPHS staff of the Massachusetts General Hospital ( " Harvard Medical School " ) and business studies with Dr. Stanley Cobb. During this time, MacLean explored psychomotor relationships of epilepsy and published his work on the " visceral brain" - 1952 he coined for it the term " limbic system ".

In 1949 he got a job in the physiological and psychiatric faculty of the " Yale Medical School ." Here he studied with Dr. John Fulton, among other things, the brain mechanisms of emotion. During this time he began his theory of the " triune brain " (English " Triune Brain" ) to formulate, which was in the course of his career, the basis of his research.

In 1956 he became Associate Professor of Physiology and spent a year in a Department of Physiology in Zurich ( Switzerland ).

MacLean in 1957 director of a new research department of the limbic system in the Laboratory of Neurophysiology at the " National Institute of Mental Health" (NIMH ). He won in 1964 and 1972 prestigious research awards and has lectured at the New York Academy of Medicine.

In 1971 he became chief of the " National Institute of Mental Health" in Poolesville (Maryland) recently opened laboratory for brain development and behavior, which he headed from 1971 to 1985. The laboratory was designed for comparative neurobehavioral research on animals in semi-natural environments. MacLean ended his scientific career as a senior researcher (Emeritus ) of the Academic Department of Neurophysiology of the " National Institute of Mental Health."

Audio-visual materials, reports, correspondence, research materials, photographs and documents in the " National Library of Medicine " document MacLean's contributions to brain and behavior research.

Works

• Triune Conception of the Brain and Behaviour. University of Toronto Press, September 25, 1974 ( English). ISBN 978-0802032997.
• The Triune Brain in Evolution: Role in Paleocerebral Functions. Springer (U.S. ) Publisher 1990. ISBN 978-0306431685.