Beyond Our Lizard Brain

One big difference between mammals and lizards is that mammals have more complex emotions. Our emotions are processed in several regions that together are loosely called the "limbic system." They form a ring around our "lizard brain" regions, which evolved earlier. Mammal brains also have an outer layer called a cortex, which helps us control our emotions and make complex decisions.

 What Is The Limbic Brain and How Can You Tap Into Its Power?

They keep us alive, they store our memories, and a lot of us have them. What are we talking about? Brains, of course! Or for this particular article, the Limbic Brain…

 Why the modern world is bad for your brain

But remember, it is the dumb, novelty-seeking portion of the brain driving the limbic system that induces this feeling of pleasure, not the planning, scheduling, higher-level thought centres in the prefrontal cortex. Make no mistake: email-, Facebook- and Twitter-checking constitute a neural addiction.

The Limbic System

The limbic system (also known as the paleomammalian brain) is a collection of brain structures located in the middle of the brain. It was first defined by Paul Broca in the nineteenth century as the structures between the cerebral hemisphere and the brainstem (i.e., the limbus, or border of the brain). The limbic system is not a discrete system itself but rather a collection of structures—anatomically related but varying greatly in function.

Brain's Design Emerges As a Key to Emotions

THE power of emotions to override even the most rational decisions may be explained by a new discovery about the brain, researchers say. The data suggest that the brain is arranged so key aspects of emotional life, like primitive fears, can operate largely independent of thought.

Can You Be Scared Enough To Pee Your Pants?

Under stressful conditions, however, the inhibitory signals from the frontal lobe can themselves be overridden by the limbic system, a combination of brain areas that controls the famous “fight or flight” response. When we become stressed or anxious, electrical signals from the limbic system become so intense that the brainstem has trouble following the frontal lobe’s commands. That’s why many people urinate more frequently before important exams or in the starting corral of a marathon. In life-threatening situations, the limbic system’s orders become so urgent that you can’t even make it to the bathroom.

From the penalty box to the ballot box, our brains are wired for tribalism

Our limbic system — our “emotional brain” — contains the hippocampus, the neural structure responsible for our memory. Those childhood connections between pleasure and pride are deep-seated in my identity.

Limbic System: Caring for Your Brain’s Limbic System

A highly influential, walnut-sized area – deep in the center of your brain – is live wired with functions all critical to your survival. The limbic system in your brain, in fact, influences problem solving, organization, and rational thought, among other things. From an evolutionary standpoint, the limbic brain is an “older” part of the brain of mammals, enabling humans to experience and express emotions, freeing them from primitive behaviors and helping to develop the surrounding cerebral cortex.

Lyme and the Limbic System

What is the limbic system? Why does it activate so quickly for Lyme patients? And what can patients do to calm it back down?

The emotion centre is the oldest part of the human brain: why is mood so important?

Many regions fundamental to mood are buried deep in the most primordial parts of the brain; that is, they are thought to have been among the first to develop in the human species. This is probably because mood is evolutionarily important.

Understanding the Strengths and Skills of the Limbic System in Daily Life

The limbic system serves as a processing area and a connector between the basic survival brain structures and the thinking, or cortical, brain structures. It is a primary player in controlling attention and interactions with visual, auditory, and tactile experiences, as well as, wake-sleep, hunger-thirst, elimination, temperature regulation, infection control and immune reactions, and other complex and interwoven life supporting systems. Its overall goal is to maintain a healthy balance called homeostasis with some reserve for emergencies

Vaping and prescription opioids: limbic capitalism in action

Biological evolution shaped the limbic system, which is indispensable for life and reproduction. But cultural evolution and technological change created a trapdoor. The same neural pathways can be exploited — lethally — by entrepreneurs of brain-rewarding products that foster excessive consumption and addictive behavior.

Why losing weight is hard – but not impossible

It is not all doom and gloom. While losing weight is difficult, it isn’t impossible. It may be possible to train your brain to prefer healthier food.

Why Teenage Brains Are So Hard to Understand

Although the development of the prefrontal cortex is the last step on the development checklist, teenagers undergo major changes in their limbic system—the area of the brain that controls emotions—at the onset of puberty, which is typically around the ages of 10 to 12. Doctors now believe that this mismatch in development of the impulse-control part of the brain and the hormone- and emotion-fueled part of the brain is what causes the risk-taking behaviors that are so common among teenagers.