The term body of the medial mammillary nucleus refers to the larger of two parts of the medial mammillary nucleus in the rat ( Swanson-2004 ) and the mouse ( Hof-2000 ). It is equivalent to the combined medial part of the medial mammillary nucleus and lateral part of the medial mammillary nucleus described by other authors for the human ( Saper-2004 ), macaque ( Paxinos-2009a ), rat ( Paxinos-2009b ) and mouse ( Franklin-2008 ). it constitutes the major volume of the nucleus ventrolateral to the much smaller median part of the medial mammillary nucleus. Functionally it is part of the behavior control column of the subcortical motor system ( Swanson-2004 ).