He limbic system It is one of the most interesting and important networks of neurons when studying human behavior, since it is one of the parts of the brain with a most relevant role in the appearance of moods.
That’s why it’s sometimes called “the emotional brain.” But… what exactly is the limbic system and what are its functions?
The limbic system is a set of brain structures with diffuse boundaries that are especially connected to each other and whose function has to do with the appearance of emotional states or with what can be understood as “instincts”, if we use this concept in its meaning. wider. Fear, happiness or anger, as well as all emotional states full of nuances, They have their main neurological basis in this network of neurons
Thus, at the center of the usefulness of the limbic system are emotions, what we link to the irrational. However, the consequences of what happens in the limbic system affect many processes that, theoretically, we do not have to associate with the emotional side of the human being, such as memorization and learning.
The limbic system in learning
More than 200 years ago, an English philosopher named Jeremy Bentham, one of the fathers of utilitarianism, proposed the idea of ​​a way to calculate happiness based on a classification of criteria to differentiate pain from pleasure. In theory, from this calculation we could know how useful or unuseful each situation was, depending on how happy it would make us according to this formula.
Simplifying greatly, we can say that, in a way similar to that proposed by Bentham, The limbic system is something like the judge that determines what deserves to be learned and how it should be memorized depending on the pleasant or painful sensations that each situation produces in us.
That is to say, the way in which the positive or negative value of each of the experiences lived depends on the limbic system. But, in addition, the way in which the limbic system influences our way of learning will have repercussions on our personality.
Some examples
For example, a mouse that has passed through the operant conditioning and has come to associate the action of moving a lever with the appearance of food in a drawer of his cage, he learns that moving the lever is okay thanks to the pleasurable sensations that seeing the food and tasting it produces, that is, basing it on something based on the euphoria of discovering a piece of cheese when you are hungry and the pleasant sensations that eating it produces.
In humans, too It can be understood that those situations in which pleasure is more sublimated in complex ways , like what it feels like to listen to a good poetry recital, teaches us that returning to the cultural association in which we heard it is “useful.” The limbic system is still the part of the brain responsible for this.
The parts of the limbic system
It should be remembered that the limbic system is not exactly an anatomically exact region of the brain , but rather it is a network of neurons distributed throughout the brain and mixed between many different structures. That is to say, the concept of the limbic system has more to do with the function that these areas have than with their nature as a concrete and well-defined part of the brain.
However, we can point out parts of the brain that play a very important role within the network of interconnections that is the limbic system and that, therefore, serve to give us an idea of ​​which areas this circuit passes through. . The parts of the limbic system are the following:
One of the areas of the diencephalon most involved in the regulation of emotions due to its connection with the pituitary gland and therefore with the endocrine system and all parts of the body in which all types of hormones are released.
Hippocampus
The hippocampus has a very important function in mental processes related to memory , both in the memorization of experiences and abstract information and in the recovery of memories. The hippocampi are located on the inner side of the temporal lobes, very close to the thalamus and the amygdalae.
The hippocampus is framed within what is known as the cortex of the limbic lobe, or archicortex, which is one of the oldest parts of the cerebral cortex; That is to say, it appeared very early in the line of evolution that led to the appearance of the human being.
Amygdala
The cerebral tonsils are located next to each hippocampus , and therefore there is one in each of the hemispheres of the brain. Their role is related to the learned emotional response that certain situations awaken, and therefore they are involved with emotional learning, which is why they have a role in the limbic system.
orbitofrontal cortex
At the limits of the limbic system is the orbitofrontal cortex, which is the outlet valve for “emotional” orders to areas of the frontal lobe responsible for planning and creating strategies. Therefore, It has an important role in calming the “irrational impulses” that come from the limbic system and pass only part of these signals, those that will serve to clearly define the objectives of the actions with medium or long-term goals.
Is it correct to talk about an “emotional brain”?
In popular culture There is a widespread idea that the human brain has an emotional part and a rational part The emotional brain, which we would have inherited from our most primitive ancestors, would be the one thanks to which we have emotions, feelings and impulses that are difficult to repress, while the rational brain would be in charge of the most conscientious and logical analysis of the situations we experience or imagine.
However, as we have seen, the limbic system is deeply interconnected with other areas of the brain not directly identified with what we know as emotions, which is why the idea that we have an emotional brain is, in large part, an excessively imaginative way of understanding this network of connections
Furthermore, we must keep in mind that if we talk about an emotional brain it is to contrast this concept with the idea of ​​a rational brain, which would be represented by the most superficial areas of the frontal and parietal lobes. However, if in the case of the limbic system we at least know that it is a set of structures that are quite old in our evolutionary line, the idea that there is in us a part of our body made to think rationally with a certain autonomy is directly an illusion.
Rationality is not innate
There are our ancestors who lived only with a limbic system and without the ability to think following the guidelines of what we understand as rationality, but In the history of human beings, rational thinking is rather an exception Not only do we not think rationally most of the time, but until a few thousand years ago rationality did not exist and, in fact, in some poorly Westernized cultures adults tend not to reach the fourth stage of cognitive development proposed by Jean Piaget
That is to say, what we call rationality is more a product of history than the fruit of a set of brain structures designed for it. The limbic system is, in any case, one of the regions of the brain that allows the emergence of rational thinking, and not the other way around.
