Psychiatria pre prax 5–6/2010

Extended amygdala in contemporary biological psychiatry

The extended amygdala is a connection of brain structures, some of which were originally taken as part of the amygdala itself. More recently were discovered their cytoarchitectonical and functional homologies, and they have been identified as a circuit connecting the central nucleus of amygdala, part of the nucleus accumbens, sublenticular amygdala and the bed nucleus of stria terminalis. Since this discovery, accumulating data on the importance of that circuit for basic functions such as circadianicity, sexuality and the feeling of fear, as well as for pathological affective or psychotic states and genesis of drug dependence. This is a basic overview of the relations between them.

Keywords: extended amygdala, central amygdala, bed nucleus of stria terminalis, biological psychiatry.