Ingulate gyrus : involved with the functions such as regulation involuntary functions of body of blood pressure, heart rate also cognitive functions, emotional regulation.Parahippocampal gyrus: involved memory (spatial).Hippocampus : involved in memory (long term).Amygdala : emotions like anxiety, social cognition, fear conditioning, aggression and emotional memory.Now, let’s look at the anatomy of the limbic system and what structures are involved, The basic functions of limbic system or Papez circuit are, feeling of starvation, emotional response to situations, sexual desires, maternal instincts, arousal etc. Limbic system can also be recognized as Papez’s Circuit. This is so because the limbic system forms a boundary which is covering all the subcortical parts of brain known as diencephalon and cerebral cortex. It comes from the concept of limbic lobe presented by anatomist “BROCA”, this Latin word limbus which means “ border”, Hem, or fringe. The exploration was still ongoing when finally the concept of limbic system got under consideration of few very renowned psychologists Goldar, Heimer and Nauta who expanded the studies and confirmed limbic system to be the center of subconscious and thinking of human being.Īs being one of the oldest and complicated structures of the brain it has its involvement in very complex yet life sustaining and meaningful functions such as memory, a large number of psychological functions, olfaction, homeostasis and last but not the least “ emotion” which is our focus as well. Later in 1890, the parts involved in limbic system were called by Henry Turner as nasal encephalon and after that James Papez in 1937 was the one who introduced term “ limbic brain” not just that he also claimed that there are more parts that includes in the following system. The term limbic system was first coined by doc Paul Broca in 1878, according to him limbic system is a structure located at the bottom edge of pineal site. This system has quite clearly and evidently showed its involvement in the emotional regulation and not just that many more functions that undergoes the limbic system. Ever thought why we living beings have emotions? and how exactly scientists recognized it initially? What is it that causes us to appear with specific emotion in a specific situation? And how are emotions regulated or are controlled? So, here in this article we will try to answer all the questions.Īt systemic level if we look into the neurobiology of emotion it tends to revolve around a very small part of brain which forms with a collection of cortical and subcortical structure together forming” limbic system”.