What is it about?
In order to survive all free moving animals should be capable to obtain food and opportunities to get offspring and to succesfully escape from dangers or uncomfortable circumstances. Hence, their brains should be capable to regulate these behaviours. This is also true for our earliest ancestors within the animal kingdom. We described the brains of such ancestors represented by nowadays lampreys and frogs. It turns out that human's amygdala represents the part of the brain which regulated these fundamental behaviours in these ancient ancestors. In these animals an important role is played by a nucleus which is very small and until now neglected by most neuroscientist; the habenula.
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Why is it important?
The habenula may play an important role in inducing mental disorders (mood, anxiety, psychosis, addiction) in humans and could be an important target for inventing new treatments.
Perspectives
An additional target might be the human brain structure which corresponds to the lamprey GPh. In lampreys this structure evaluates the results of fundamental behaviour and inhibits this behaviour when it is not successful enough.
Prof. dr. Anton J Loonen
University of Groningen, Groningen Research Institute of Pharmacy
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This page is a summary of: Evolution of circuits regulating pleasure and happiness with the habenula in control, CNS Spectrums, November 2017, Cambridge University Press,
DOI: 10.1017/s1092852917000748.
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