a rounded mass of gray matter in the temporal lobe internal to the cortex of the uncus and immediately anterior to the inferior horn of the lateral ventricle; its major afferents are olfactory and its efferent connections are with the hypothalamus and mediodorsal nucleus of the thalamus and it is also reciprocally associated with the cortex of the temporal lobe; it is subdivided into two major nuclear groups; basolateral and corticormedial. Syn: corpus amygdaloideum [NA], almond nucleus, amygdaloid complex, amygdaloid nucleus, nucleus amygdalae.