Median eminence

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Brain: Median eminence
Median eminence is 'ME', at bottom center, in green.
NeuroNames hier-385
MeSH A08.186.211.730.385.357.352.435.249

The median eminence is part of the inferior boundary for the hypothalamus part of the human brain. A small swelling on the tuber cinereum posterior to the infundibulum - atop the pituitary stalk - the median eminence lies in the area roughly bounded on its posterolateral region by the cerebral peduncles, and on its anterolateral region by the optic chiasm.

The median eminence is one of the seven areas of the brain devoid of a blood-brain barrier.

[edit] Physiology

The median eminence has an important physiological importance, as it is integral to the hypophyseal portal system, which connects the hypothalamus with the anterior lobe of the pituitary gland. It is in this structure that the secretions of the hypothalamus (releasing and inhibiting regulatory hormones) collect before entering the portal system.

Diencephalon - edit

third ventricle, interventricular foramina, optic chiasm, subfornical organ

epithalamus: pineal body, habenula, habenular nuclei

anterior hypothalamus: anterior hypothalamic nucleus, paraventricular nucleus, preoptic area, supraoptic nucleus, suprachiasmatic nucleus

intermediate/middle/tuberal/pituitary hypothalamus: infundibulum, median eminence, arcuate nucleus, ventromedial nucleus, dorsomedial hypothalamic nucleus, tuber cinereum, pituitary gland (anterior pituitary, posterior pituitary)

posterior/lateral hypothalamus: posterior nucleus, mammillary body, lateral nucleus

subthalamus: subthalamic nucleus

thalamus: pulvinar, medial geniculate nucleus, lateral geniculate nucleus, list of thalamic nuclei