the.com/hypothalamus
a sugar-cube of brain running your hunger, thirst, rage, and lust like a tiny tyrant.
means A small region at the base of the brain that keeps the body's internal balance steady, governing hunger, thirst, temperature, sleep, and hormone release via the pituitary gland.
from From Greek hypo- 'under' plus thalamus 'inner chamber' (originally a bedroom or storeroom). The thalamus got its name because early anatomists pictured it as a chamber deep in the brain; the hypothalamus is literally the part lying 'beneath the chamber' — a modern scientific coinage built from those old Greek bricks.
- size
- weighs about 4 grams, smaller than an almond
- thermostat
- sets your body temperature like a household dial
- clock
- houses the master clock for sleep cycles
- hormone boss
- commands the pituitary, the gland it controls
- four f's
- governs feeding, fighting, fleeing, and reproduction
pituitary gland connection — the hypothalamus controls the pituitary via releasing hormones through the hypophyseal portal blood system, a direct neural-endocrine link
suprachiasmatic nucleus — a specific hypothalamic region with ~20,000 neurons that regulates circadian rhythms in response to light detected by the retina
ventromedial hypothalamus — the region that when damaged in rats causes severe obesity, demonstrating its role as a satiety center discovered in 1940s research