Can someone clarify whether the cingulate cortex is part of the limbic lobe (not to be confused with the limbic system)?

Question

To my knowledge, the limbic lobe consists for the cortical component of the limbic system whilst the remainder of the limbic system is composed of the subcortical components. More specifically, can someone clarify whether the entire cingulate cortex is considered part of the limbic lobe or wether just the cingulate gyrus (not the cingulate sulcus) is considered a part of the limbic lobe?

Answer 1

Hi Anastasia,

The limbic lobe refers to the cingulate cortex. The cingulate cortex is composed of both the cingulate gyrus and the cingulate sulcus which is simply a continuation of the cingulate gyrus. Both the gyrus and the sulcus contain neurons. The cingulate sulcus also contains neurons of the frontal and parietal and temporal lobes. so all of these neurons make up the cingulate cortex and the axons of those neurons form the white matter tract called the cingulum which synapses with neurons in the parahippocampal gyrus and the entorhinal cortex (which is a portion of the uncus). the neurons of the entorhinal cortex synapse the hippocampal neurons.

So really the cinglulate cortex is part of the limbic system but people call it the limbic lobe because its also part of the cortex unlike the rest of the limbic system. If you would like, I can make a video explaining this using pictures and maybe continue to talk about the entire limbic system circuitry that i'm aware of.

Hope this helps,

Tal