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( Pineal gland)
The pineal gland (also called the pineal body, epiphysis cerebri, or epiphysis) is a small endocrine gland in the vertebrate brain. It produces melatonin, a hormone that affects the modulation of wake/sleep patterns and photoperiodic (seasonal) functions.[1][2] It is shaped like a tiny pine cone, and is located near the center of the brain, between the two hemispheres, tucked in a groove where the two rounded thalamic bodies join. The pineal gland is a reddish-gray body about the size of a pea (8 mm in humans), located just rostro-dorsal to the superior colliculus and behind and beneath the stria medullaris, between the laterally positioned thalamic bodies. It is part of the epithalamus. The pineal gland is a midline structure, and is often seen in plain skull X-rays, as it is often calcified. The pineal body consists in humans of a lobular parenchyma of pinealocytes surrounded by connective tissue spaces. The gland's surface is covered by a pial capsule.
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