The

limbic The limbic system, also known as the paleomammalian cortex, is a set of brain structures located on both sides of the thalamus, immediately beneath the medial temporal lobe of the cerebrum primarily in the forebrain.Schacter, Daniel L. 2012. ''Ps ...

lobe is an arc-shaped region of cortex on the medial surface of each

cerebral hemisphere The vertebrate cerebrum (brain) is formed by two cerebral hemispheres that are separated by a groove, the longitudinal fissure. The brain can thus be described as being divided into left and right cerebral hemispheres. Each of these hemispheres ...

of the mammalian brain, consisting of parts of the frontal, parietal and temporal lobes. The term is ambiguous, with some authors including the paraterminal gyrus, the

subcallosal area The subcallosal area (parolfactory area of Broca) is a small triangular field on the medial surface of the hemisphere in front of the subcallosal gyrus, from which it is separated by the posterior parolfactory sulcus; it is continuous below with ...

, the

cingulate gyrus The cingulate cortex is a part of the brain situated in the medial aspect of the cerebral cortex. The cingulate cortex includes the entire cingulate gyrus, which lies immediately above the corpus callosum, and the continuation of this in the ...

, the

parahippocampal gyrus The parahippocampal gyrus (or hippocampal gyrus') is a grey matter cortical region of the brain that surrounds the hippocampus and is part of the limbic system. The region plays an important role in memory encoding and retrieval. It has been in ...

, the

dentate gyrus The dentate gyrus (DG) is part of the hippocampal formation in the temporal lobe of the brain, which also includes the hippocampus and the subiculum. The dentate gyrus is part of the hippocampal trisynaptic circuit and is thought to contribut ...

, the

hippocampus The hippocampus (via Latin from Greek , 'seahorse') is a major component of the brain of humans and other vertebrates. Humans and other mammals have two hippocampi, one in each side of the brain. The hippocampus is part of the limbic system, a ...

and the

subiculum The subiculum (Latin for "support") is the most inferior component of the hippocampal formation. It lies between the entorhinal cortex and the CA1 subfield of the hippocampus proper. The subicular complex comprises a set of related structures ...

; while the

Terminologia Anatomica ''Terminologia Anatomica'' is the international standard for human anatomical terminology. It is developed by the Federative International Programme on Anatomical Terminology, a program of the International Federation of Associations of Anatomis ...

includes the

cingulate sulcus The cingulate sulcus is a sulcus (brain fold) on the cingulate cortex in the medial wall of the cerebral cortex. The frontal and parietal lobes are separated from the cingulate gyrus by the cingulate sulcus. It terminates as the marginal sulcus ...

, the cingulate gyrus, the

isthmus of cingulate gyrus The cingulate gyrus commences below the rostrum of the corpus callosum, curves around in front of the genu, extends along the upper surface of the body, and finally turns downward behind the splenium The corpus callosum ( Latin for "tough bo ...

, the fasciolar gyrus, the parahippocampal gyrus, the parahippocampal sulcus, the

, the fimbrodentate sulcus, the fimbria of hippocampus, the

collateral sulcus The collateral fissure (or sulcus) is on the tentorial surface of the hemisphere and extends from near the occipital pole to within a short distance of the temporal pole. Behind, it lies below and lateral to the calcarine fissure, from which it ...

, and the

rhinal sulcus In the human brain, the entorhinal cortex appears as a longitudinal elevation anterior to the parahippocampal gyrus, with a corresponding internal furrow, the external rhinal sulcus (or rhinal fissure), separating it from the inferiolateral surface ...

, and omits the hippocampus.

History

Broca named the limbic lobe in 1878, identifying it with the cingulate and parahippocampal gyri, and associating it with the sense of smell - Treviranus having earlier noted that, between species, the size of the parahippocampal gyrus varies with the size of the olfactory nerve. In 1937

Papez James Wenceslas Papez (;Livingston, Kenneth E. '. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 1981 1883–1958) was an American neuroanatomist, most famous for his 1937 description of the Papez circuit, a neural pathway in the brain thought to be invo ...

theorized that a

neural circuit A neural circuit is a population of neurons interconnected by synapses to carry out a specific function when activated. Neural circuits interconnect to one another to form large scale brain networks. Biological neural networks have inspired th ...

(the Papez circuit) including the

hippocampal formation The hippocampal formation is a compound structure in the medial temporal lobe of the brain. It forms a c-shaped bulge on the floor of the temporal horn of the lateral ventricle. There is no consensus concerning which brain regions are encompassed ...

and the cingulate gyrus constitutes the neural substrate of emotional behavior, and Klüver and Bucy reported that, in monkeys, resection involving the hippocampal formation and the

amygdaloid complex Amygdaloid, derived from the ancient Greek for almond, may refer to: * The amygdala in the brain * Any shape resembling an almond nut * Amygdule Amygdules or amygdales () form when the vesicles (pores from gas bubbles in lava) of a volcanic ...

has a profound effect on emotional responses. As a consequence of these publications, the idea that the entire limbic lobe is dedicated to

olfaction The sense of smell, or olfaction, is the special sense through which smells (or odors) are perceived. The sense of smell has many functions, including detecting desirable foods, hazards, and pheromones, and plays a role in taste. In humans, it ...

receded, and a direct connection between emotion and the limbic lobe was established.

Gallery

File:Limbic lobe animation small.gif, Limbic lobe (shown in red) of left cerebral hemisphere. File:Brain lobes - medial surface with limbic lobe.png, Limbic lobe (shown in orange) of left cerebral hemisphere. File:LobesCaptsMedial1.png, Limbic lobe (shown in purple) of right cerebral hemisphere. File:LobesCaptsMedial2.png, Limbic lobe (shown in purple) of right cerebral hemisphere. File:Limbic lobe coronal sections.gif, Limbic lobe highlighted in green on coronal T1 MRI images File:Limbic lobe sagittal sections.gif, Limbic lobe highlighted in green on sagittal T1 MRI images File:Limbic lobe transversal sections.gif, Limbic lobe highlighted in green on transversal T1 MRI images

References

External links

Explanatory diagram
* https://web.archive.org/web/20070328181549/http://ahsmail.uwaterloo.ca/kin356/ltm/limbic_lobe.html {{Authority control Limbic system