Pedunculopontine nucleus | |
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Details | |
Identifiers | |
Latin | nucleus tegmentalis pedunculopontinus |
MeSH | Pedunculopontine+Tegmental+Nucleus |
NeuroNames | hier-495 |
NeuroLex ID | Pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus |
Dorlands /Elsevier |
n_11/12583626 |
TA | A14.1.06.336 |
FMA | 72429 |
Anatomical terms of neuroanatomy
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The pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN) (or pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus, PPTN or PPTg) is located in the brainstem, caudal to the substantia nigra and adjacent to the superior cerebellar peduncle. It has two divisions, one containing cholinergic neurons, the pars compacta, and one containing mostly glutamatergic neurons, the pars dissipata. The PPN is one of the main components of the reticular activating system. It was first described in 1909 by Louis Jacobsohn-Lask, a neuroanatomist born in Bydgoszcz.
PPN neurons project axons to a wide range of areas in the brain, particularly parts of the basal ganglia such as the subthalamic nucleus, substantia nigra pars compacta, and globus pallidus internus. It also sends them to targets in the thalamus, cerebellum, basal forebrain, and lower brainstem, and in the cerebral cortex, the supplementary motor area and somatosensory and motor cortices.
It receives inputs from many areas of the brain, including the basal ganglia to which it projects with the exception of the substantia nigra pars compacta to which it projects but does not receive, while it receives but does not project to the substantia nigra pars reticulata.