Abstract
The amygdaloid body or amygdaloid nuclear complex is an aggregate of several grey matter nuclei, of diencephalic origin, located in the anterior and medial parts of each of the two temporal lobes, connected not only to the entire limbic system but also to the sensory cortical areas, which receive and process the emotional inputs by triggering, via the thalamus, hypothalamus and brainstem, a series of reactions referred to as emotional expressions, dynamic, neuroendocrine, vegetative and hormonal, of variable intensity according to each individual and to the significance and violence of the triggering emotional factor. This amygdaloid body is controlled by the frontal brain. However, this control can bypassed at a specific moment, in cases of extreme urgency, especially when the survival of an individual is involved.
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Notes
- 1.
In this book, two terms will be used invariably: “amygdaloid nuclear complex” (Amn) or “amygdala”. However, the last term will be favoured so as to lighten the text.
- 2.
On the basis of the work completed by Papez, some authors consider that there is a third limbic annular structure included in the intralimbic gyrus. It is the annular structure of the fornix which is composed of the fimbria, the fornix, the mammillary body and the mammillothalamic tract (fasciculus of Vicq d’Azyr) to the dorsomedian nucleus of the thalamus.
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Di Marino, V., Etienne, Y., Niddam, M. (2016). Definition and Generalities. In: The Amygdaloid Nuclear Complex. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23243-0_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23243-0_1
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