Hypothetical mechanism that detects specific sensory stimuli and directs an organism to take a particular action.

Process that maintains critical body functions within a narrow, fixed range.

Experimental setup in which a participant is allowed only restricted sensory input; participants generally have a low tolerance for deprivation and may even hallucinate.

The degree to which a person feels male or female.

Failure to eat; may be due to an unwillingness to eat or to motor difficulties, especially with swallowing.

Almond-shaped collection of nuclei in the limbic system; plays a role in emotional and species-typical behaviors.

From the Greek word for seahorse; distinctive allocortical structure lying in the medial temporal lobe; participates in species-specific behaviors, memory, and spatial navigation and is vulnerable to the effects of stress.

Peptide released by the hypothalamus that increases or decreases hormone release from the anterior pituitary.

Recurrent attacks of intense terror that come on without warning and without any apparent relation to external circumstances.

Proposal that marker signals arising from emotions and feelings act to guide behavior and decision making, usually in an unconscious process.

Endocrine gland attached to the bottom of the hypothalamus; its secretions control the activities of many other endocrine glands; associated with biological rhythms.

Exaggerated concern with being overweight that leads to inadequate food intake and often excessive exercising; can lead to severe weight loss and even starvation.

Excessive accumulation of body fat.

Any neurosurgical technique intended to alter behavior.

Overeating that leads to significant weight gain.

Tract that connects brainstem structures with various parts of the limbic system; forms the activating projections that run from the brainstem to basal ganglia and frontal cortex.

Fear of a clearly defined object or situation.

A person’s pattern of sexual attraction–to the opposite sex or to the same sex or to both sexes.

Behavior unnecessary to the animal’s basic survival needs.

Thirst that results from a high concentration of dissolved chemicals, or solutes, in body fluids.

Persistently high levels of anxiety often accompanied by maladaptive behaviors to reduce anxiety; thought to be caused by chronic stress.

Acquired association between a specific taste or odor and illness; leads to an aversion to foods that have the taste or odor.

Discipline that seeks to apply principles of natural selection to understand the causes of human behavior.

Extensive frontal lobe area anterior to the motor and premotor cortex; key to controlling executive functions such as planning.

Cognitive interpretation of subjective feelings.

Behavior motivated to meet the animal’s survival needs.

Behavioral syndrome, characterized especially by hypersexuality, that results from bilateral injury to the temporal lobe.

Prefrontal cortex behind the eye sockets (the orbits); receives projections from the dorsomedial nucleus of the thalamus; central to a variety of emotional and social behaviors, including eating; also called orbital frontal cortex.

Behavior that seems purposeful and goal-directed.

Predisposition to respond to certain stimuli differently from other stimuli.

Possessing personal characteristics that transcend traditional gender boundaries and corresponding sexual norms; a person’s belief that he or she was born the wrong sex.

Differential development of brain areas in the two sexes.

Odorant biochemical released by one animal that acts as a chemosignal and can affect the physiology or behavior of another animal.

In operant conditioning, any event that strengthens the behavior it follows.

Class of hormones that stimulates or controls masculine characteristics and level of sexual interest.

Thirst produced by a loss of overall fluid volume from the body.