Ribas Guilherme Carvalhal
Departamento de Cirurgia, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brasil.
Braz J Psychiatry. 2007 Mar;29(1):63-71.
Considering the most recent contributions, the limbic cortical areas, originally known as the greater limbic lobe, besides the cingulated and the parahippocampal gyri also includes the insula and the posterior orbital cortex. In contrast to the nonlimbic cortical areas that project to the basal ganglia (particularly over the dorsal aspects of the striatum, constituted by the caudate nucleus and by the putamen), the limbic cortical areas are characterized by projecting to the hypothalamus and also to the ventral striatum (particularly to the nucleus accumbens). Once all the striatum projects to the globus pallidus which projects to the thalamus and then to the cortex, generating cortical-subcortical reentrant circuits, while the dorsal striatum and pallidum related cortico-subcortical loops are involved with motor activities, the ventral cortical-striatal-pallidal system is particularly related with behavior functions. The extended amygdala (central medial amygdala, stria terminalis or dorsal component, ventral component, and bed nucleus of stria terminalis) receives inputs primarily from the limbic cortical areas, is particularly modulated by the prefrontal cortex, and receives also direct connections from the thalamus that enables the amygdala to generate nonspecific and quick responses through its projections to the hypothalamus and to the brainstem. The ventral striatal-pallidal and the extended amygdala are then two basal forebrain macro-anatomical systems, that together with the basal nucleus of Meynert and with the septal-diagonal band system, constitute the main structures that are particularly connected with the limbic cortical areas, and that altogether project to the hypothalamus and to the brainstem which give rise to the autonomic, endocrine and somatosensory components of the emotional experiences, and that regulate the basic activities of drinking, eating, and related to the sexual behavior.
考虑到最新的研究成果，边缘皮质区域最初被称为大脑边缘叶，除了扣带回和海马旁回外，还包括脑岛和眶后皮质。与投射到基底神经节的非边缘皮质区域（特别是纹状体的背侧部分，由尾状核和壳核组成）不同，边缘皮质区域的特点是投射到下丘脑以及腹侧纹状体（特别是伏隔核）。整个纹状体投射到苍白球，苍白球再投射到丘脑，然后投射到皮质，形成皮质-皮质下折返回路，而背侧纹状体和苍白球相关的皮质-皮质下环路参与运动活动，腹侧皮质-纹状体-苍白球系统则特别与行为功能相关。扩展杏仁核（中央内侧杏仁核、终纹床核或背侧部分、腹侧部分以及终纹床核）主要接收来自边缘皮质区域的输入，特别受前额叶皮质的调节，还直接接收来自丘脑的连接，这使得杏仁核能够通过其向下丘脑和脑干的投射产生非特异性的快速反应。腹侧纹状体-苍白球和扩展杏仁核是两个基底前脑宏观解剖系统，它们与迈内特基底核和隔区-斜角带系统一起，构成了与边缘皮质区域特别相连的主要结构，并共同投射到下丘脑和脑干，从而产生情绪体验的自主、内分泌和躯体感觉成分，并调节饮水、进食以及与性行为相关的基本活动。
