Word: thalamus
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Normally, the caudate nucleus filters the flood of anxious feelings and sensations that are relayed from the orbital cortex, an area of the brain just above the eyes, and sends only the significant ones on to the thalamus for further action. But in people with obsessive-compulsive disorder, says neuroscientist Lewis Baxter, who led the team, the caudate nucleus is "a poor executive officer. He's bombarded with messages from worrywarts. But instead of setting priorities, he gets excited about all the messages and passes them on to the dispatcher...
...great majority of physicians say the drugs upset the body's natural hormonal balance, particularly that involving testosterone, which is present, though in different amounts, in both men and women. Normally, the hypo thalamus, the part of the brain that regulates many of the body's func tions, "tastes" the testosterone levels; if it finds them too low, it signals the pituitary gland to trigger increased production...
...body. In a tall person, the distance from toe to dorsal horn may be more than one meter, and it can take about two seconds for the message to arrive. From there, it is relayed in a bewildering flurry of chemical messages to the brain, first to the thalamus, where sensations like heat, cold, pain and touch first become conscious. Then on to the cerebral cortex, where the intensity and location of pain are recognized. This final stretch of the pathway is the great terra incognita in pain research. Says Fields...
...researchers, Solomon Snyder and Candace Pert of Johns Hopkins University, Eric Simon of New York University and Lars Terenius of Uppsala, Sweden, announced almost simultaneously the discovery of specific receptors for such opiates in the brain. Snyder's lab located a high density of receptors in the medial thalamus, an area of the brain responsible for registering deep sustained pain; in the amygdala, a region of the brain's limbic system that plays a role in controlling emotion; and in the spinal cord...
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...