The bilateral Right Cerebrum.Limbic Lobe.Uncus.Gray Matter.Amygdala corresponds to the right amygdaloid complex embedded within the anterior medial temporal lobe, closely associated with the uncus and forming part of the limbic system. This gray matter structure comprises several nuclei (including basolateral, centromedial, and cortical groups) that integrate sensory, contextual, and mnemonic information to modulate emotional processing, particularly fear, threat detection, and emotional salience, as well as contributing to autonomic and endocrine responses via extensive connections with the hypothalamus and brainstem. The amygdala also interacts with the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex to influence emotional memory formation, decision-making under affective load, and social behavior, and exhibits hemispheric specialization, with the right amygdala often implicated in rapid, automatic aspects of emotional processing.
Amygdala
The amygdala, located in the uncus of the limbic lobe, has been repeatedly implicated in genetic studies of psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders, emotional traits, and brain morphology. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of amygdala volume and structure have identified variants in and near genes such as SLC39A8, MEF2C, TESC, and other loci associated with subcortical gray matter differences, with several of these genes also linked to schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, and cognitive traits. Polygenic risk scores for anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and post-traumatic stress disorder correlate with amygdala structural and functional variation, and candidate-gene and imaging-genetics work has associated common variants in serotonin transporter (SLC6A4), BDNF (notably Val66Met), COMT, and FKBP5 with altered amygdala reactivity to emotional stimuli and stress, as well as differences in amygdala volume and connectivity. Rare copy-number variants and mutations affecting synaptic and neurodevelopmental genes (e.g., NRXN1, SHANK3, 22q11.2 CNVs) have been linked to amygdala abnormalities in autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia. More broadly, large GWAS of anxiety, neuroticism, and fear-related traits implicate polygenic architectures that converge on limbic circuitry including the amygdala, consistent with its central role in genetic susceptibility to affective and stress-related psychopathology.
Overview generated by GPT-4o (2026).
Region ID: 182
Hemisphere: bilateral
Atlas: Talairach labels 2mm
Full Quality Version: Download MP4
Full Quality Version: Download MP4
Wali Sidiqyar*, Gaurav Rudravaram*, Elyssa M. McMaster, Trent M. Schwartz, Adam M. Saunders, Kurt G. Schilling, Bennett A. Landman "Introducing SPINS: A Shared Public Visualization Library of Neuroanatomical Structures." Medical Imaging with Deep Learning- short paper
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