Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The limbic system operates by influencing the endocrine system and the autonomic nervous system. It is highly interconnected with the nucleus accumbens , which plays a role in sexual arousal and the "high" derived from certain recreational drugs .
In the human brain the hippocampus, the dentate gyrus, and the subiculum are components of the hippocampal formation located in the limbic system. The hippocampus plays important roles in the consolidation of information from short-term memory to long-term memory, and in spatial memory that enables navigation.
However, there has not been additional proof of the circuit's role in emotion over the years. Now, the Amygdala is thought to play a key role in emotion, a structure that was not a part of the Papez circuit until 1952 when MacLean included it in the modified version of the circuit, the limbic system.
The amygdala appears to play a role in binge drinking, being damaged by repeated episodes of intoxication and withdrawal. [77] [78] Protein kinase C-epsilon in the amygdala is important for regulating behavioral responses to morphine and ethanol and controlling anxiety-like behavior. The protein is involved in controlling the function of other ...
The parahippocampal gyrus (or hippocampal gyrus [1]) 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 involved in some cases of hippocampal sclerosis. [2] Asymmetry has been observed in schizophrenia. [3]
The mesolimbic pathway and a specific set of the pathway's output neurons (e.g. D1-type medium spiny neurons within the nucleus accumbens) play a central role in the neurobiology of addiction. [20] [21] [22] Drug addiction is an illness caused by habitual substance use that induces chemical changes in the brain's circuitry. [23]
Specifically, research has shown that this part of the basal ganglia plays a role in acquiring stimulus-response habits, as well as in solving sequence tasks. [8] Damage to the basal ganglia has been linked to dysfunctional learning of motor and perceptual-motor skills.
ΔFosB also plays an important role in regulating behavioral responses to natural rewards, such as palatable food, sex, and exercise. [20] [21] Natural rewards, like drugs of abuse, induce ΔFosB in the nucleus accumbens, and chronic acquisition of these rewards can result in a similar pathological addictive state through ΔFosB overexpression.