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Teaching the limbic system: A historical perspective
Author(s) -
Culberson James L.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.23.1_supplement.301.2
Subject(s) - limbic system , neuroscience , psychology , limbic lobe , dilemma , affect (linguistics) , forebrain , perspective (graphical) , notice , worry , cognitive science , communication , psychiatry , anxiety , computer science , epistemology , central nervous system , philosophy , political science , law , artificial intelligence
In 1878 Paul Broca named le grande lobe limbique as one more thing to worry about in thestruggle to understand the forebrain. It was 60 years later beforeJames Papez wired this unnoticed lobe into his insightful 'circuit for emotion'. Again no oneseemed to notice for 20 more years,until P.D. McLean described a muchmore pervasive, functioninglimbic system that assumed real behavioral relevance (and added complexity!). By the time Walle Nauta extended the systemfrom basal forebrain into the midbrain, it was getting too difficult for anyone to figure out!Even as anatomists and students sweated connections, clinicians made clear that this limbus was problematic in many epilepsy patients, and that the'limbic system' was implicated in a wide range of disorders of affect and in dysfunction of many innate survival behaviors. Since both anatomy and function of the limbic system are recognizably important andcomplex, neuroscientists facultieslearned to teach it and students tried to cope.Whilewe struggled together, well intentionedDeans and Curriculum Committeescheerfully choppedaway teaching hours from med neuroscience (where recognizable courses survived!) to accommodate'competencies'. Given these realities, this talk will consider the dilemma: How shall we teach a limbic system that is ever more complex, while instructional time is ever more constrained and the system is almost daily more clinically relevant?