Amygdala

 The amygdala has been implicated in the generation of the most rudimentary and the most profound of human emotions, including fear, sexual desire, rage, religious ecstasy, or at a more basic level, determining if something might be good to eat. The amygdala is implicated in the seeking of loving attachments and the formation of long term emotional memories. It contains neurons which become activated in response to the human face, and which become activated in response to the direction of someone else's gaze. Chemical systems within the amygdala include opiate, lutenizing hormone, vasopressin, somatostatin, and corticotropin releasing factor The amygdala can be likened to the chief executive of the limbic system, weilding enormous power over the hypothalamic impulses via the stria terminalis, medial forebrain bundle, and amygdalafugal pathways.. The amygdala is also directly connected to the hippocampus, with which it interacts in regard to memory. The influence of the amygdala can become so significant that it is able to overwhelm the neocortex and thus gain control over behavior when emotions run high.

 The amygdala is buried within the depths of the anterior-inferior temporal lobe and consists of several major nuclear groups including the cortical-medial, central, paralaminar, lateral, basal, and accessory basal nucleus which can roughly be grouped as medial and basolateral nuclei. The medial group (or cortico-medial amygdala) is involved in olfaction, sexual, and motor activity (via its interconnections with the striatum). In females, the medial amygdala is a principle site for uptake of the female sex hormone, estrogen, and contains a high concentration of leutenizing hormones which are important during pregnancy and nursing. In addition, the medial (and lateral) regions are rich in cells containing enkephalins, and opiate receptors can be found throughout the amygdala and the amygdala becomes exceedingly active when experiencing a craving for pleasure such as drugs. The basolateral amygdala is the most cortex-like, subserving pleasure circuits and relying on excitatory neurotransmitters, e.g., glutamate--whereas the local-circuit (interneurons) rely on the inhibitory transmitters, e.g., GABA. This   is intimately involved in all aspects of emotional activity.It is highly important in analyzing information received and transferring information back to the neocortex so that further elaboration may be carried out at the neocortical level. It is through the lateral division that emotional meaning and significance can be assigned to as well as extracted from that which is experienced.

-Intractible aggression or fear -Inability to recognize faces -Blunted emotions -Lack of emotional speech -Incapacity to respond appropriately to socially emotional stimuli (social-emotional agnosia) -Difficulty maintaining attention -In ability to sing, convey melodic information or to properly enunciate via vocal inflection (right sided injury) -Prolonged, repeated, and inappropriate sexual behavior and/or masturbation -High risk behavior,reduced loss aversion (e.g.gambling) -Memory deficits -Tendency to react to every stimuli -Tendency to put objects into the mouth  ||
 * <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"> Possible Symptoms Associated with Amygdala Damage  ||
 * <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">-Docility

Laterality
The right cerebral hemisphere appears to maintain more extensive as well as bilateral interconnections with the limbic system. The limbic system also appears to be lateralized in regard to certain aspects of emotional functioning such that the right amygdala, hippocampus and hypothalamus seem to exert dominant influences.

As noted, the arcuate fasciculus extends from the amygdala through the auditory association area and inferior parietal region and into the frontal convexity. It is possibly through these interconnections that emotional colorization is added to neocortical acoustic perceptions as well as sounds being prepared for expression. In fact, the human amygdala can produce as well as perceive emotional vocalizations.

Right Amygdala Damage
-Ability to sing affected -Ability to properly intonate altered

The amygdala should be considered part of the melodic-intonational axis of the right hemisphere as it not only subcortically responds to and analyzes environmental sounds and emotional vocalizations but imparts emotional significance to auditory input and output processed and expressed at the level of the neocortex.

Although originating predominantly within the right amygdala/hemisphere, these influences can be directly transmitted to the left half of the brain via the left amygdala and through anterior commissure and via the arcuate fasciculus which transmits this data into the linguistic stream of the Language Axis.