Thalamus and hypothalamus are the structures in the brain. Hypothalamus is cone-shaped, the thalamus consists of two connected lobes, one located in each hemisphere. In both structure and function, the hypothalamus regulates the body's vital metabolic processes, affecting temperature, blood pressure, hunger, thirst and sleep. It controls the endocrine system by affecting the pituitary gland's production of hormones. The thalamus takes information from a number of different areas of the brain and relays it to the cerebral cortex, the outer layer of gray matter where higher level brain functions take place. The names are similar because hypo means under, and the hypothalamus was named for its position, which is below the thalamus. Both thalamus and hypothalamus are part of an area of the brain known as the diencephalon. Unlike the thalamus, hypothalamus secretes hormones including vasopressin and oxytocin.