Emotional control: Limbic system

1. The limbic system

2. The amygdala

2.1 Anatomy of the amygdala

2.2 Principles of function of

the amygdala

Antonio R. Damasio „Descartes‘ Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human

Brain“ Vintage, 2006.

Joseph LeDoux „The emotional brain“ Phoenix, 1999.

Das Organ der Vorsicht

Phineas Gage (1848)

Lesion in the prefrontal cortex

(The Scientist, Febr. 2010)

Warren Anatomical Museum, Harvard Medical

School, Boston

Personality change: disruption of the ability to come to adequate decision

Damage tameness

Electrical stimulation feelings of fear

Amygdala volume and social networks

- Animal species with larger social groups have larger basolateral

amygdala

- Amygdala in primates might have developed due to an evolutionary

pressure for more complex social life

- Larger amygdala could have allowed to develop more complex

strategies of cooperation and competition

Reconsolidation theory of fear memory

• Fear: Replacing memories (Reconsolidation theory)

• The amygdala in 5 minutes

• Joseph LeDoux and the Amygdaloides

Activity of alcohol in the reduction of fear may have also basis in central

nucleus of the amygdala:

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 100:2053-2058 (2003)

The amygdala and reward

Evidence for a role of the amygdala in processing positive emotions as

well, e.g. during reward mechanisms in obesity, via connections to

ventral tegmentum

(Kenny (2011) Reward

Mechanisms in Obesity: New

Insights and Future

Directions. Neuron 69: 664-

679)