The Limbic System – The Brain's Emotional
Center
 The
part of the brain that has fascinated Heimer most is the structures
of the basal forebrain, many of which would generally be included
in the so-called limbic system, e.g. the olfactory structures, the
amygdala, and the ventral parts of the basal ganglia including the
accumbens. Since the limbic system is associated with emotional
behavior, it has always been of interest for psychologists and psychiatrists,
who see an opportunity to correlate emotional behavior with specific
parts of the brain.
Heimer and his colleagues developed the concept
of the ventral striatopallidal system; they realized that the basal
ganglia extend to the ventral surface of the brain, and they showed
that the ventral parts of the basal ganglia project to the mediodorsal
thalamus rather than to the anterior-ventral lateral (VA-VL) nuclei
("motor nuclei") of the thalamus. This was the beginning
of the notion of "parallel cortico-subcortical reentrant circuits",
which to some extent has replaced the limbic system as the theoretical
frame work for neuropsychiatric disorders. The extended amygdala
is another, but still somewhat controversial concept, which has
been studied in some detail in different mammals, including humans,
by Heimer and his colleagues.
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