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Concept

Hypothalamus

A red, detailed model of a brain with visible folds and a dark stem-like structure at the bottom, representing the hypothalamus.

An almond-sized cluster of nuclei at the base of the brain, just above the pituitary, that acts as the central interface between the nervous and endocrine systems. It governs body temperature, hunger, thirst, sleep, circadian timing and the stress response, and issues the releasing hormones that command the anterior pituitary. Lesions a few millimetres across can dismantle whole categories of behaviour.

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