Mammillothalamic fasciculus

Mammillothalamic tract
Details
Latin fasciculus mammillothalamicus
Identifiers
Gray's p.869
Dorlands
/Elsevier		 f_03/12356101
TA A14.1.08.671
A14.1.08.954
FMA 83849
Anatomical terminology

The mammillothalamic fasciculus (mammillothalamic tract, thalamomammillary fasciculus, bundle of Vicq d’Azyr) arises from cells in both the medial and lateral nuclei of the mammillary body and by fibers that are directly continued from the fornix.

The mammillothalamic fasciculus then connects the mammillary body to the dorsal tegmental nuclei, the ventral tegmental nuclei, and the anterior thalamic nucleus[1]

Anatomy

The mammillothalamic tract was first described by the French physician, Félix Vicq d'Azyr, from which it takes its alternate name (The Bundle of Vicq d'Azyr).

There axons divide within the gray matter; the coarser branches pass into the anterior nucleus of the thalamus as the bundle of Vicq d’Azyr, the finer branches pass downward as the mammillo-tegmental bundle of Gudden. This might be identical to the hypothalamotegmental tract.

The bundle of Vicq d’Azyr spreads out fan-like as it terminates in the anterior or dorsal nucleus of the thalamus.

A few of the fibers pass through the dorsal nucleus to the angular nucleus of the thalamus. ("The term 'angular thalamic nucleus' refers to a group of cells ventral to the lateral dorsal nucleus in the mouse."[2])

The axons from these nuclei are supposed to form part of the thalamocortical system.

Clinical significance

Infarction has been associated with Korsakoff's syndrome.[3]

See also

References

This article incorporates text in the public domain from the 20th edition of Gray's Anatomy (1918)

  1. ↑ Haines, DE. (2003) Neuroanatomy: Atlas of Structures, Sections, and Systems, 6th ed. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. p232
  2. ↑ NeuroNames. Angular Thalamic Nucleus --> "What, Where and How Big is It?" BrainInfo. Accessed January 25, 2011.
  3. ↑ Yoneoka Y, Takeda N, Inoue A et al. (2004). "Acute Korsakoff syndrome following mammillothalamic tract infarction". AJNR Am J Neuroradiol 25 (6): 964–8. PMID 15205131.

External links