Ruth Maldonado-Rengel; Víctor Vaca-Merino; Christopher Nicholson & Mariano del Sol

In medical terminology the term brain amyg- dala is used to refer to the structure that according to the Terminologia Neuroanatomica and Terminologia Anatomica is known as the amydaloid body, which is made up of various nuclei and is responsible for emotions, behavior, regulation of the anxiety, aggression, fear, emotional memory, social cognition, and responses to stress. Being the cerebral amygdala such an important structure, the objective of this study was: to analyze the meaning of the term cerebral amygdala in Terminologia Neuroanatomica and in Terminologia Anatomica and to contrast if the origin of its Greek Latin roots agrees with the function of this structure according to the requirements of the FIPAT. For this, the dictionaries of the Royal Spanish Academy, the DGE Greek Spanish Dictionary, the VOX Greek Spanish Dictionary, the Medical, Biological, Histological and Etymological Dictionary of the University of Salamanca, the Dictionary of the Royal National Academy of Medicine, as well as some articles and classic books of anatomy. The results indicated that the term amygdala has the same meaning in Greek as in Latin, where? ἀμυγδαλέα, ἀμυγδαλέας (pr. Amygdaléa, amygdaléas) is the almond tree andἀμυγδάλη, ἀμυγδάλης (pr. amygdále, amygdáles) means almond. Knowing both the anatomy and the physiology of this structure, its shape does not resemble that of an almond and its current name is not in accordance with the requirements of the FIPAT, for which we consider that it should be revised.