The Limbic System Conception and Its Historical Evolution

Throughout the centuries, scientific observers have endeavoured to extend their knowledge of the interrelationships between the brain and its regulatory control of human emotions and behaviour. Since the time of physicians such as Aristotle and Galen and the more recent observations of clinicians and neuropathologists such as Broca, Papez, and McLean, the field of affective neuroscience has matured to become the province of neuroscientists, neuropsychologists, neurologists, and psychiatrists. It is accepted that the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex, hippocampus, and insula participate in the majority of emotional processes. New imaging technologies and molecular biology discoveries are expanding further the frontiers of knowledge in this arena. The advancements of knowledge on the interplay between the human brain and emotions came about as the legacy of the pioneers mentioned in this field. The aim of this paper is to describe the historical evolution of the scientific understanding of interconnections between the human brain, behaviour, and emotions.

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SNAP-25a/b Isoform Levels in Human Brain Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex and Anterior Cingulate Cortex

Molecular Neuropsychiatry ◽

10.1159/000441224 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 1 (4) ◽

pp. 220-234 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Peter M. Thompson ◽

Dianne A. Cruz ◽

Elizabeth A. Fucich ◽

Dianna Y. Olukotun ◽

Masami Takahashi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Human Brain ◽

Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽

Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Cingulate Cortex ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Dorsolateral Prefrontal

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Subjective value and decision entropy are jointly encoded by aligned gradients across the human brain

10.1101/2020.02.18.954362 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Sebastian Bobadilla-Suarez ◽

Olivia Guest ◽

Bradley C. Love

Keyword(s):

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Human Brain ◽

Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Neural Representation ◽

Retrospective Evaluation ◽

Systematic Fashion ◽

Subjective Value ◽

Fmri Analysis ◽

The Relationship ◽

The Brain

AbstractRecent work has considered the relationship between value and confidence in both behavior and neural representation. Here we evaluated whether the brain organizes value and confidence signals in a systematic fashion that reflects the overall desirability of options. If so, regions that respond to either increases or decreases in both value and confidence should be widespread. We strongly confirmed these predictions through a model-based fMRI analysis of a mixed gambles task that assessed subjective value (SV) and inverse decision entropy (iDE), which is related to confidence. Purported value areas more strongly signalled iDE than SV, underscoring how intertwined value and confidence are. A gradient tied to the desirability of actions transitioned from positive SV and iDE in ventromedial prefrontal cortex to negative SV and iDE in dorsal medial prefrontal cortex. This alignment of SV and iDE signals could support retrospective evaluation to guide learning and subsequent decisions.

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The history and scope of neuropsychiatry

Oxford Textbook of Neuropsychiatry ◽

10.1093/med/9780198757139.003.0001 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 3-12

Author(s):

Michael Trimble

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Nervous System ◽

Human Brain ◽

Limbic System ◽

Historical Development ◽

The Body ◽

The Enlightenment ◽

Romantic Era ◽

The Brain

This chapter discusses the clinical necessity from which the intersection of neurology and psychiatry arose, exploring different eras and their associated intellectual milestones in order to understand the historical framework of contemporary neuropsychiatry. Identifying Hippocrates’ original acknowledgement of the relation of the human brain to epilepsy as a start point, the historical development of the field is traced. This encompasses Thomas Willis and his nascent descriptions of the limbic system, the philosophical and alchemical strides of the Enlightenment, and the motivations behind the Romantic era attempts to understand the brain. It then follows the growth of the field through the turn of the twentieth century, in spite of the prominence of psychoanalysis and the idea of the brainless mind, and finally the understanding of the ‘integrated action’ of the body and nervous system, which led to the integration of psychiatry and neurology, allowing for the first neuropsychiatric examinations of epilepsy.

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Is the Human Brain Unique?

10.1093/med/9780190850128.003.0002 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Jack M. Gorman

Keyword(s):

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Theory Of Mind ◽

Human Brain ◽

Brain Function ◽

Human Mind ◽

Brain Diseases ◽

Expression Of Genes ◽

The Future ◽

Mind And Brain ◽

The Brain

Some scientists now argue that humans are really not superior to other species, including our nearest genetic neighbors, chimpanzees and bonobos. Indeed, those animals seem capable of many things previously thought to be uniquely human, including a sense of the future, empathy, depression, and theory of mind. However, it is clear that humans alone produce speech, dominate the globe, and have several brain diseases like schizophrenia. There are three possible sources within the brain for these differences in brain function: in the structure of the brain, in genes coding for proteins in the brain, and in the level of expression of genes in the brain. There is evidence that all three are the case, giving us a place to look for the intersection of the human mind and brain: the expression of genes within neurons of the prefrontal cortex.

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Schema support for forming inferences in the human brain

10.1101/2021.11.15.466820 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

John Philippe Paulus ◽

Carlo Vignali ◽

Marc N Coutanche

Keyword(s):

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Human Brain ◽

Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Neural Representations ◽

Memory Integration ◽

New Information ◽

Neural Integration ◽

Two Factors ◽

Memory Schema ◽

The Brain

Associative inference, the process of drawing novel links between existing knowledge to rapidly integrate associated information, is supported by the hippocampus and neocortex. Within the neocortex, the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) has been implicated in the rapid cortical learning of new information that is congruent with an existing framework of knowledge, or schema. How the brain integrates associations to form inferences, specifically how inferences are represented, is not well understood. In this study, we investigate how the brain uses schemas to facilitate memory integration in an associative inference paradigm (A-B-C-D). We conducted two event-related fMRI experiments in which participants retrieved previously learned direct (AB, BC, CD) and inferred (AC, AD) associations between word pairs for items that are schema congruent or incongruent. Additionally, we investigated how two factors known to affect memory, a delay with sleep, and reward, modulate the neural integration of associations within, and between, schema. Schema congruency was found to benefit the integration of associates, but only when retrieval immediately follows learning. RSA revealed that neural patterns of inferred pairs (AC) in the PHc, mPFC, and posHPC were more similar to their constituents (AB and BC) when the items were schema congruent, suggesting that schema facilitates the assimilation of paired items into a single inferred unit containing all associated elements. Furthermore, a delay with sleep, but not reward, impacted the assimilation of inferred pairs. Our findings reveal that the neural representations of overlapping associations are integrated into novel representations through the support of memory schema.

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Integrating Perspectives on Affective Neuroscience: Introduction to the Special Section on the Brain and Emotion

Emotion Review ◽

10.1177/1754073918783259 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 (3) ◽

pp. 187-190 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Stephan Hamann

Keyword(s):

Human Brain ◽

Special Section ◽

Levels Of Analysis ◽

Affective Neuroscience ◽

Common Theme ◽

Neural Basis ◽

The Brain

In this special section, three target articles present three different perspectives on emotion and how it is implemented in the human brain. Fundamental issues are discussed such as the nature and organization of emotion’s representation in the brain and the best approaches for elucidating emotion’s neural basis. Comments and author replies further discuss these issues and explore their interconnections. A common theme of the target articles and commentaries is that multiple approaches and perspectives must be integrated across all levels of analysis to understand the neural basis of emotion.

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Hot and cold executive functions in the brain: A prefrontal-cingular network

10.31219/osf.io/5sghe ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Mohammad Ali Salehinejad ◽

Elham Ghanavati ◽

Mohammed Harun Ar Rashid ◽

Michael A Nitsche

Keyword(s):

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Executive Functions ◽

Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽

Functional Model ◽

Cingulate Cortex ◽

Neuropsychiatric Disorders ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Posterior Cingulate ◽

Specific Focus ◽

The Brain

Executive functions (EFs), or cognitive control, are higher-order cognitive functions needed for adaptive goal-directed behaviours and are significantly impaired in majority of neuropsychiatric disorders. Different models and approaches are proposed for describing how EFs are functionally organized in the brain. One popular and recently proposed organizing principle of EFs is the distinction between hot (i.e., reward or affective-related) vs cold (i.e., purely cognitive) domains of EFs. The prefrontal cortex is traditionally linked to EFs, but on the other hand, anterior and posterior cingulate cortices are involved in EFs as well. In this review, we first define EFs, their domains, and the appropriate methods for studying them. Second, we discuss how hot and cold EFs are linked to different areas of the prefrontal cortex. Third, we discuss the association of hot vs cold EFs with the cingulate cortex with a specific focus on anterior and posterior compartments. Finally, we propose a functional model for hot and cold EF organization in the brain with a specific focus on the fronto-cingular network. We also discuss clinical implications of hot vs cold cognition in major neuropsychiatric disorders (depression, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, substance use disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism) and attempt to characterize their profile according to the functional dominance of hot-cold cognition. Our model proposes that the lateral prefrontal cortex, along with the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex are more relevant for cold EFs and the medial-orbital prefrontal cortex along with the ventral anterior cingulate cortex, and posterior cingulate cortex are more closely involved in hot EFs. This functional distinction, however, is not absolute and depends on several factors including task features, context, and the extent to which the measured function relies on cognition and emotion or both.

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The Neuroscience of Learning Agility

10.1093/oso/9780190085353.003.0005 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 118-142

Author(s):

Kim E. Ruyle

Keyword(s):

Emotional Intelligence ◽

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Executive Function ◽

Limbic System ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Learning Agility ◽

Attention Networks ◽

The Relationship ◽

The Brain

“The Neuroscience of Learning Agility” explores the relationship between neurobiology and learning agility. It provides an overview of the organization of the brain, focusing on the roles of the limbic system and the prefrontal cortex and how these particular brain regions relate to personality, executive function, and the metacompetencies of emotional intelligence and learning agility. The neuroscience of learning is discussed, including the brain’s attention networks, neuroplasticity, and biological underpinnings of memory. An argument is posited that the brain’s perceptions of threats directly impacts one’s personality and, by extension, influences one’s level of learning agility. The chapter concludes by providing neuroscience-based suggestions for developing learning agility.

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A Brief Anatomical Sketch of Human Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex

10.31234/osf.io/zdt7f ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Jamil Bhanji ◽

David Victor Smith ◽

Mauricio Delgado

Keyword(s):

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Orbitofrontal Cortex ◽

Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Major Focus ◽

Functional Interpretation ◽

Functional Roles ◽

White Matter Connectivity ◽

The Brain ◽

Human Neuroimaging

The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is a major focus of investigation in human neuroscience, particularly in studies of emotion, social cognition, and decision making. Although the term vmPFC is widely used, the zone is not precisely defined, and for varied reasons has proven a complicated region to study. A difficulty identifying precise boundaries for the vmPFC comes partly from varied use of the term, sometimes including and sometimes excluding ventral parts of anterior cingulate cortex and medial parts of orbitofrontal cortex. These discrepancies can arise both from the need to refer to distinct sub-regions within a larger area of prefrontal cortex, and from the spatially imprecise nature of research methods such as human neuroimaging and natural lesions. The inexactness of the term is not necessarily an impediment, although the heterogeneity of the region can impact functional interpretation. Here we briefly address research that has helped delineate sub-regions of the human vmPFC, we then discuss patterns of white matter connectivity with other regions of the brain and how they begin to inform functional roles within vmPFC.

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Human brain region-specific variably methylated regions (VMRs) are enriched for heritability of distinct neuropsychiatric traits

10.1101/2021.01.02.425010 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Lindsay F. Rizzardi ◽

Peter F. Hickey ◽

Adrian Idrizi ◽

Rakel Tryggvadóttir ◽

Colin M. Callahan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Dna Methylation ◽

Human Brain ◽

Brain Region ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Differential Methylation ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Single Pair ◽

Regulatory Regions ◽

Neuronal Nuclei ◽

The Brain

ABSTRACTBACKGROUNDDNA methylation dynamics in the brain are associated with normal development and neuropsychiatric disease and differ across functionally distinct brain regions. Previous studies of genome-wide methylation differences among human brain regions focused on limited numbers of individuals and one to two brain regions.RESULTSUsing GTEx samples, we have generated a resource of DNA methylation in purified neuronal nuclei from 8 brain regions as well as lung and thyroid tissues from 12-23 donors. We identified differentially methylated regions between brain regions (DMRs) among neuronal nuclei in both CpG (181,146) and non-CpG (264,868) contexts, few of which were unique to a single pair-wise comparison. This significantly expands the knowledge of differential methylation across the brain by 10-fold. In addition, we present the first differential methylation analysis among neuronal nuclei from basal ganglia tissues and identified 2,295 unique CpG DMRs, many associated with ion transport. Consistent with prior studies, CpG DMRs were enriched in regulatory regions while non-CpG DMRs were enriched in intergenic regions. We also identified 81,130 regions of variably CpG methylated regions (VMRs), i.e. variable methylation among individuals in the same brain region, which were enriched in regulatory regions and in CpG DMRs. Many VMRs were unique to a specific brain region, with only 202 common across all brain regions, as well as lung and thyroid. VMRs identified in the amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex, and hippocampus were enriched for heritability of schizophrenia.CONCLUSIONSThese data suggest that epigenetic variation in these particular human brain regions could be associated with the risk for this neuropsychiatric disorder.

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