Word: amygdala
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Growing out of the spinal cord like the crown of a tree out of its trunk, the brain has several major components (see diagram page 52). The limbic system, an area that surrounds the head of the brain stem and includes such structures as the amygdala, part of the thalamus, hypothalamus and hippocampus, regulates the emotions. The pituitary, which hangs down from the brain stem like an olive from the tree, produces the hormones that influence growth and development. The cerebellum, a fist-sized structure at the rear of the brain that controls movements and coordination, enables man to touch...
Psychosurgery involves the destruction of a small section of brain--known as the amygdala--which supposedly controls aggressive behavior. A number of methods can be used to destroy the tissue, including ultrasound or laser beams. Only a very small section of tissue, about 1/600 of an inch, is damaged in the process...
...connected with mood and behavior. Others found that psychomotor epilepsy-a condition that can result from injury and makes some of its victims violently and uncontrollably aggressive-is often accompanied by the presence of tiny epileptic foci, or small scars, in the temporal lobe. Some doctors concentrated on the amygdala, a small, almond-shaped body whose removal appears to curb aggressive behavior...
...Vernon Mark and Dr. Frank Ervin, of Harvard Medical School, use a different operation. Part of the amygdala was removed in 13 patients, all of whom suffered from periodic seizures of violent, even homicidal rage. One of the patients has had no rage attacks or seizures in more than three years, four have had only mild attacks, and one has apparently not improved; it is too early to assess the results in the other seven cases. Dr. Keiji Sano, head of neurosurgery at Tokyo University School of Medicine, uses a similar procedure on the hypothalamus. All of his patients were...
...more weirdly named for the objects their shapes suggested to ancient anatomists, e.g., amygdala (almond), torcular Herophili (wine press of Herophilus), hippocampus (sea horse), mammillary body (little breast, or nipple...