> There's no evidence that I know of that the limbic system and the cortex are in this sort of relationship It's true that in mammals (possessing a neocortex)

> There's no evidence that I know of that the limbic system and the cortex are in this sort of relationship It's true that in mammals (possessing a neocortex) the cortex takes over various processes traditionally performed by the limbic system. Complete removal of the cortex in rats demonstrates that behaviour can revert to entirely limbic control: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/564358 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/564358 While the cortex can definitely be / become "in charge" of complex intelligent behaviours, it may still need the brain's phylogenically older machinery to bootstrap it.