The amygdala is a large nucleus located in the anterior temporal lobe just under the uncus and anterior to both the hippocampus and inferior horn of the ventricle. It appears fused with the tail ending of the caudate. The amygdala is a very important component of the limbic system and has important roles in emotion, reward, memory, social cognition, and especially fear. It can be divided into several subnuclei with different functional roles and connections. Two major outputs of the amygdala are the very long stria terminalis pathway and the more direct ventral amygdalofugal pathway to roughly the same targets.
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