THE LIMBIC SYSTEM - AN ANATOMIC, PHYLOGENETIC, AND CLINICAL PERSPECTIVE

The limbic system is the border zone where psychiatry meets neurology. The authors provide a model of limbic function that,combines phylogen etic, anatomic, functional, and clinical data to interpret diseases re levant to neuropsychiatry. They provide evidence supporting two major divisions in the limbic system: a paleocortical division with the amyg dala and orbitofrontal cortex at its center, and an archicortical divi sion with the hippocampus and cingulate cortex at its center. The impl icit integration of affect, drives, and object associations is the fun ction of the paleocortical limbic division; explicit sensory processin g, encoding, and attentional control is the function of the archicorti cal limbic division. The two work in concert to integrate thought, fee ling, and action. Understanding their development and organization inf orms us about how best to care for our patients.