mushroom body

English

Etymology

From mushroom + body, after German pilzhutförmiger Körper.

Noun

mushroom body (plural mushroom bodies)

1. (entomology) Either of a pair of structures in the brains of insects and some other arthropods thought to be involved in learning and memory.
   • 1999, Matt Ridley, Genome, Harper Perennial, published 2004, page 226:

     In fruit flies the cyclic AMP system seems to be especially active in brain regions called mushroom bodies, toadstool-shaped extrusions of neurons in the fruit fly brain.

Synonyms

• corpora pedunculata