Limbic system (deep inside brain) – major brain regions
From the book – Chapter 3: Human Brain and Nervous System
Limbic system (deep inside brain)
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Emotions (fear, anger, pleasure).
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Memory formation (hippocampus).
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Motivation and reward (amygdala, nucleus accumbens).
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Survival behaviours.
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Emotional memories.
The pieces are separate: hippocampus — new episodic memories and spatial maps; amygdala — salience and threat, emotional memory.
Clinic note. Trauma and panic use this neighbourhood heavily. The alarm can fire after the danger has gone. Therapy and, when needed, medicine work here as well as in the frontal lobe that tries to talk the alarm down.
Read the full chapter – Chapter 3: Human Brain and Nervous System
Stories from real life
- The Alarm That Would Not Switch Off – Priya was seventeen and preparing for her board exams in Jaipur. Whenever she opened her Physics paper, her heart hammered, her palms turned cold and wet,…
- After the Bike Fall – Arjun, twenty-two, rode his motorbike to a call centre in Hyderabad. One rainy night he skidded and hit his head. He had no helmet on. He…
- Learning to Paint at Seventy – Haridas, seventy-one, retired from the railways in Kolkata and found the days strangely empty. He began forgetting where he had put his glasses and worried that…
- Midnight Scrolling and the Growing Brain – Fifteen-year-old Chloe lived in Manchester and was known at school for her sharp wit. Lately she had been dozing in class and saying things she regretted.…
Shloks
- Katha Upanishad 1.3.3–4 – Know the self as the rider, the body as the chariot, the intellect as the driver, and the mind as the reins.
More on this topic: The brain, hormones and body chemistry behind your moods
More questions
- Brainstem (base of brain, connects to spinal cord) – major brain regions
- Understanding the nervous system
- Peripheral nervous system (PNS) – the nervous system
- Autonomic nervous system: two branches – the nervous system
- Parasympathetic nervous system (rest-and-digest) – the nervous system
- Understanding brain plasticity – the brain and nervous system
- Understanding messengers – the brain and nervous system
- Understanding taking care of your brain – the brain and nervous system
- Which brain region is mainly responsible for planning, decision-making and self-control?
- What is true: the limbic system is primarily involved in…?