Summary

The benchmark discovery of the cingulate gyrus as a brain structure that receives signals from the muscles and viscera was made in 1907 by the neuropathologist Christfried Jakob. In 1911–1913, Jakob also suggested the involvement of the mamillary bodies, anterior nucleus of the thalamus, cingulate cortex, and the hippocampus in the circuit of the emotive brain (i.e., all elements of the 1937 “circuit of Papez”), described the thalamocingulate projection, and introduced the term “visceral brain.” On a directly related theme, Jakob formulated in 1923 a “tripsychic” brain system based on neural phylogeny. In the same year, Sigmund Freud solidified his tripartite model of the mental apparatus. Paul MacLean used the term “visceral brain” in 1949, and introduced his “triune brain” postulate in 1969. In spite of their time distance of half a century, the neuroevolutionary models of Jakob and MacLean reveal convergent morphofunctional propositions. In conclusion, Jakob preceded the concepts of the “visceral brain” and the “circuit of Papez” by 30 years with his series of articles written in German or Spanish. In his writings, from the early 1900s until his last publication of 1949, Jakob further made the dichotomy between an interoceptive (introyental) affective sphere, represented in the medial/limbic facies of the cerebral hemisphere, and the lateral cognitive (intelectualizante) sphere, which interacts with the outer environment.