Library · Anatomy
Amygdala
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The amygdala has nothing to do with the tonsils in your throat. It is a structure the size and shape of an almond, which is where the name comes from, tucked into the temporal lobe, the part of the brain that sits roughly at the level of the temple. Up close it is not one solid piece: it is about thirteen nuclei, clusters of neurons, packed together.
It belongs to the limbic system, the set of structures responsible for emotion and behavior, which also takes part in forming memory.
Within that system, the amygdala is credited with a role in anxiety, in aggression, in fear conditioning, which is learning to fear something that used to mean nothing to you, in emotional memory, and in social cognition, the way we read other people.
Picture an alarm bell the size of an almond. There it sits, small, in the middle of an enormous brain.
In brief
The amygdala is an almond-shaped structure set in the temporal lobe, just beneath the uncus, and it holds about thirteen nuclei.
It is one of the components of the limbic system, the system that controls emotion and behavior and also takes part in forming memory.
It takes part in regulating anxiety, aggression, fear conditioning, emotional memory, and social cognition.
An alarm bell the size of an almond.
Sources (1)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingNeuroanatomy, Amygdala, StatPearlsPublished
This page explains the topic in general terms; it does not tell anyone what treatment to follow.
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