When the amygdala perceives a threat, it activates the limbic system to prepare to handle the threat. This response is also sometimes called the fight, flight, or freeze response, thanks to new evidence suggesting the role of freezing in response to danger. The limbic system helps the body respond to intense emotions of fear and anger by activating the fight or flight response. When the smell of a crisp apple or warm beach air brings back memories of a long-ago summer, the hippocampus is responsible. The hippocampus helps form sensory memories, which are memories associated with sensory input. The amygdala assigns emotional meaning to memories and helps the brain form fear-based memories. Together, these two organs also help the brain interpret the emotional content of memories. The amygdala and hippocampus work together to regulate emotions, especially evolutionarily “old” emotions that play a role in survival-love for one’s children, aggression, fear, and anxiety. This is why many people with addictions find little relief from activities that were once pleasurable. Over time, addiction can deplete the brain’s dopamine stores, making it difficult to feel pleasure without drugs. Drugs act on dopamine, and over time, the release of dopamine can become addictive. Drug and alcohol abuse, however, can change the functioning of the limbic system. In a healthy brain, dopamine helps people feel motivated to learn, meet new people, or try new experiences. Those neurons release dopamine, a neurotransmitter that supports feelings of pleasure. Research suggests that feelings of motivation and reward originate in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), a group of neurons that connects to the nucleus accumbens in the basal ganglia. The limbic system acts as a control center for conscious and unconscious functions, regulating much of what the body does. For example, by activating the fight or flight response, the limbic system triggers a physical response to emotional experiences such as fear. In some ways, it connects the mind to body, bridging the gap between psychological and physiological experiences. Other limbic system organs include neurons, the basal ganglia, portions of the prefrontal cortex, the cingulate gyrus, and the ventral tegmental area. This organ plays a role in myriad functions by releasing hormones hat help sustain homeostasis-the ability of the body to maintain relatively consistent conditions. The limbic system also includes the hypothalamus. Problems with either of these organs can affect memory, learning, and emotional regulation. They also help attach emotional meaning to memories. The amygdalae help the body process emotions. The hippocampi play important roles in memory, learning, long-term information storage, and spatial reasoning. It includes the hippocampus and amygdala, each of which is actually a pair of organs on either side of the brain. The limbic system isn’t a specific organ or part of the body, but rather a group of brain structures that work together. The autonomic nervous system supports automatic, non-conscious functions such as thirst, hunger, heart rate, and regulating the body’s internal clock. Research has linked the limbic system to feelings of motivation and reward, learning, memory, the fight or flight response, hunger, thirst, and production of hormones that help regulate the autonomic nervous system. The limbic system is a set of brain structures that plays a role in emotions, particularly those that evolved early and which play an important role in survival. Which part of the brain controls emotion how to#
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |