The term medial part of the medial preoptic nucleus refers to one of two or three parts of the medial preoptic nucleus in the macaque ( Paxinos-2009a ) the rat ( Swanson-2004 ) and the mouse ( Dong-2004 ). All three species have a lateral part of the medial preoptic nucleus. The rat and the mouse have in addition a central part of the medial preoptic nucleus. Functionally the medial preoptic nucleus is part of the behavior control column of the subcortical motor system ( Swanson-2004 ).