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Human brain in the coronal orientation. Amygdalae are shown in dark red. The amygdala (/ ə ˈ m ɪ ɡ d ə l ə /; pl.: amygdalae / ə ˈ m ɪ ɡ d ə l i,-l aɪ / or amygdalas; also corpus amygdaloideum; Latin from Greek, ἀμυγδαλή, amygdalē, 'almond', 'tonsil' [1]) is a paired nuclear complex present in the cerebral hemispheres of vertebrates.
Besides memory, the amygdala also seems to be an important brain region involved in attentional and emotional processes. First, to define attention in cognitive terms, attention is the ability to focus on some stimuli while ignoring others. Thus, the amygdala seems to be an important structure in this ability.
Neuronal activity in the central nucleus of the amygdala was found to be a critical brain substrate for incubation of methamphetamine craving as well as neurobiological responses to ethanol. [3] [20] [21] [22] Neurons in the central nucleus of the amygdala were found to respond to, and control, predatory hunting. [23]
In fear conditioning, the main circuits that are involved are the sensory areas that process the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli, certain regions of the amygdala that undergo plasticity (or long-term potentiation) during learning, and the regions that bear an effect on the expression of specific conditioned responses.
The central nucleus can be thought of as the exit of the amygdaloid bodies through which the bodily responses that are associated with fear leave the amygdala. [12] It is the most peptide-rich region of the brain. [8] The amygdalofugal pathway connects the central nucleus of the amygdala to the brainstem.
The striatum (pl.: striata) or corpus striatum [5] is a cluster of interconnected nuclei that make up the largest structure of the subcortical basal ganglia. [6] The striatum is a critical component of the motor and reward systems; receives glutamatergic and dopaminergic inputs from different sources; and serves as the primary input to the rest of the basal ganglia.
The amygdala is involved in memory consolidation, which is the process of transferring information that is currently in working memory into ones long-term memory. This process is also known as memory modulation. [7] The amygdala works to encode recent emotional information into memory.
The basolateral amygdala, or basolateral complex, or basolateral nuclear complex consists of the lateral, basal and accessory-basal nuclei of the amygdala. [1] The lateral nuclei receives the majority of sensory information, which arrives directly from the temporal lobe structures, including the hippocampus and primary auditory cortex .