The anterior hypothalamic nucleus is a nucleus of the

hypothalamus The hypothalamus () is a part of the brain that contains a number of small nuclei with a variety of functions. One of the most important functions is to link the nervous system to the endocrine system via the pituitary gland. The hypothalamu ...

. Its function is

thermoregulation Thermoregulation is the ability of an organism to keep its body temperature within certain boundaries, even when the surrounding temperature is very different. A thermoconforming organism, by contrast, simply adopts the surrounding temperature ...

(cooling) of the body. Damage or destruction of this nucleus causes hyperthermia. The anterior hypothalamus plays a role in regulating

sleep Sleep is a sedentary state of mind and body. It is characterized by altered consciousness, relatively inhibited sensory activity, reduced muscle activity and reduced interactions with surroundings. It is distinguished from wakefulness by a de ...

. The anterior hypothalamic region is sometimes grouped with the

preoptic area The preoptic area is a region of the hypothalamus. MeSH classifies it as part of the anterior hypothalamus. TA lists four nuclei in this region, (medial, median, lateral, and periventricular). Functions The preoptic area is responsible for ther ...

References

External links

NIF Search - Anterior nucleus of hypothalamus
via the

Neuroscience Information Framework The Neuroscience Information Framework is a repository of global neuroscience web resources, including experimental, clinical, and translational neuroscience databases, knowledge bases, atlases, and genetic/genomic resources and provides many auth ...

Hypothalamus {{neuroanatomy-stub