The Limbic System - Amygdala

Next on our trip throughout the limbic system is the amygdala! A fun fact about the amygdala: its name originates from the fact that it looks like an almond, and almond in Greek sounds like amygdala! The amygdala's main purpose is to control your emotions. Of those emotions, the amygdala especially deals with your feeling of fear. Many studies have been conducted to evaluate what happens when the amygdala of rodents and nonhuman primates is removed, and they have concluded that animals without an amygdala do not feel fear. This, although it might sound cool to not be afraid of anything, can be very dangerous, and hopefully these studies help you to appreciate all that your amygdala does for you! When we learned about the hippocampus, I mentioned that the hippocampus connects emotions and memories when storing them, and the amygdala helps in this process.

Although I don't have any fun activity for you on the amygdala, I do challenge you to read an interesting study on the amygdala. A really great website that you can find studies that have been written for kids is here: https://kids.frontiersin.org/. Check it out, and comment below something new that you have learned about the amygdala!