Caudate nucleus
| Caudate nucleus | |
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Transverse Cut of Brain (Horizontal Section), basal ganglia is blue
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| Details | |
| Part of | dorsal striatum |
| Identifiers | |
| Latin | nucleus caudatus |
| MeSH | A08.186.211.730.885.105.487.550.184 |
| NeuroNames | hier-208 |
| NeuroLex ID | Caudate Nucleus |
| TA | A14.1.09.502 |
| FMA | 61833 |
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Anatomical terms of neuroanatomy
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The caudate nucleus is one of the structures that make up the dorsal striatum, which is a component of the basal ganglia. While the caudate nucleus has long been associated with motor processes due to its role in Parkinson's disease, it plays important roles in various other nonmotor functions as well, including procedural learning,associative learning and inhibitory control of action, among other functions. The caudate is also one of the brain structures which compose the reward system and functions as part of the cortico–basal ganglia–thalamic loop.
Together with the putamen, the caudate forms the dorsal striatum, which is considered a single functional structure; anatomically, it is separated by a large white matter tract, the internal capsule, so it is sometimes also referred to as two structures: the medial dorsal striatum (the caudate) and the lateral dorsal striatum (the putamen). In this vein, the two are functionally distinct not as a result of structural differences, but merely due to the topographical distribution of function.
The caudate nuclei are located near the center of the brain, sitting astride the thalamus. There is a caudate nucleus within each hemisphere of the brain. Individually, they resemble a C-shape structure with a wider "head" (caput in Latin) at the front, tapering to a "body" (corpus) and a "tail" (cauda). Sometimes a part of the caudate nucleus is referred to as the "knee" (genu).
The head and body of the caudate nucleus form part of the floor of the anterior horn of the lateral ventricle. After the body travels briefly towards the back of the head, the tail curves back toward the anterior, forming the roof of the inferior horn of the lateral ventricle. This means that a coronal (on a plane parallel to the face) section that cuts through the tail will also cross the body and head of the caudate nucleus.
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