Anterior commissure
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Brain: Anterior commissure | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Coronal section of brain through anterior commissure. (Label for "anterior commissure" is on left, third from bottom.) | ||
 |
||
| The hypophysis cerebri in position. Shown in sagittal section. (Caption for anterior commissure is at center top.) | ||
| Latin | commissura anterior | |
| Gray's | subject #189 840 | |
| NeuroNames | hier-187 | |
| Dorlands/Elsevier | c_49/12251560 | |
The Anterior Commissure (precommissure) is a bundle of white fibers, connecting the two cerebral hemispheres across the middle line, and placed in front of the columns of the fornix.
On a sagittal section, it is oval in shape, having a long vertical diameter that measures about 5 mm.
Contents |
[edit] Connections
Its fibers can be traced laterally and backwards on either side beneath the corpus striatum into the substance of the temporal lobe.
It serves in this way to connect the two temporal lobes, but it also contains decussating fibers from the olfactory tracts, and is a part of the neospinothalamic tract for pain. The anterior commissure also serves to connect the two amygdala.
[edit] Sexuality
In 1991 brain studies performed by Laura Allen and Roger Gorski of UCLA noted that the Anterior Commissure was found to be 1/3 larger in men with a homosexual orientation.[1] In 1992, a study by Allen and Gorski shows a pattern of different sizes of the brain's anterior commissure between a group of heterosexual men and a group of women and homosexual men. But as William Brye and Bruce Parson's point out, this study has "many of the same interpretive difficulties as LeVay's." These include a "tremendous" number of exceptions, such as the fact that 27 of 30 homosexual men had anterior commissures that "fell within the range established by 30 heterosexual men." [2]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ LeVay S (1991). "A difference in hypothalamic structure between heterosexual and homosexual men". Science 253 (5023): 1034–7. doi:. PMID 1887219.
- ^ L.S. Allen and R.A. Gorski, "Sexual Orientation and the size of the anterior commissure in the human brain," Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 89 (1992): pp. 7199-7202, cited in Byne and Parsons, op. cit. p. 235.
[edit] Additional images
 Superficial dissection of brain-stem. Lateral view. |
 Deep dissection of brain-stem. Lateral view. |
 Superficial dissection of brain-stem. Ventral view. |
 Mesal aspect of a brain sectioned in the median sagittal plane. |
 Median sagittal section of brain. |
[edit] External links
- Overview at University of Cambridge
- Roche Lexicon - illustrated navigator, at Elsevier 13048.000-3
- http://www2.umdnj.edu/~neuro/studyaid/Practical2000/Q09.htm
This article was originally based on an entry from a public domain edition of Gray's Anatomy. As such, some of the information contained herein may be outdated. Please edit the article if this is the case, and feel free to remove this notice when it is no longer relevant.
 |
This neuroscience article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
