Paralimbic association area in the temporal pole is situated between sensory association areas and the limbic regions and has direct connections with these areas and the ventral striatum. Corticostriatal connections of paralimbic association area in the temporal pole were studied with particular emphasis on specific projections of the ventral striatum to identify different contributions to the functional outcome of the ventral striatum. Retrograde tracers were injected into the five different regions of the ventral striatum such as the ventromedial caudate nucleus, ventral shell, central shell, dorsal core of the nucleus accumbens (NA), and ventrolateral putamen to identify the labeled cells of origin. Present results indicate that the temporal pole has specifically dense projections to the ventral shell of NA. This differential pattern of corticostriatal connectivity suggests that ventral shell region of ventral striatum is preferentially involved in the convergence of sensory and limbic stimulus to motivational and emotional states.
Basal Ganglia ; Caudate Nucleus ; Nucleus Accumbens ; Primates* ; Putamen

Transient memory impairment can be occurred by many causes. One of them is acute focal brain lesion in strategic site. Caudate nucleus and medial basal ganglia (globus pallidus) are lesion of strategic site. They play its role in cognitive processing. But lateral basal ganglia (putamen) is known as a structure involving movement, not cognitive function. We report a interesting case of transient memory dysfunction with acute focal putamen ICH with old caudate nucleus infarction.
Basal Ganglia ; Brain ; Caudate Nucleus ; Infarction ; Intracranial Hemorrhages ; Memory ; Putamen

In the 2 patients with hemichorea brain CT scan reveals hypodensity on the contralateral caudate nucleus and the region near contralateral caudate nucleus. The pathoanatomy of similar cases in literature are reviewed with the reference to the location of responsible lesions.
Brain ; Caudate Nucleus ; Chorea* ; Humans ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Brain extracellular space (ECS) is a narrow, irregular space, which provides immediate living environment for neural cells and accounts for approximately 15%-20% of the total volume of living brain. Twenty-five years ago, as an interventional radiologist, the author was engaged in investigating early diagnosis and treatment of cerebral ischemic stroke, and the parameters of brain ECS was firstly derived and demonstrated during the study of the permeability of blood-brain barrier (BBB) and its diffusion changes in the cerebral ischemic tissue. Since then, the author and his team had been working on developing a novel measuring method of ECS: tracer-based magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which could measure brain ECS parameters in the whole brain scale and make the dynamic drainage process of the labelled brain interstitial fluid (ISF) visualized. By using the new method, the team made a series of new findings about the brain ECS and ISF, including the discovery of a new division system in the brain, named regionalized ISF drainage system. We found that the ISF drainage in the deep brain was regionalized and the structural and functional parameters in different interstitial system (ISS) divisions were disparate. The ISF in the caudate nucleus could be drained to ipsilateral cortex and finally into the subarachnoid space, which maintained the pathway of ISF-cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) exchange. However, the ISF in the thalamus was eliminated locally in its anatomical division. After verifying the nature of the barrier structure between different drainage divisions, the author proposed the hypothesis of "regionalized brain homeostasis". Thus, we demonstrated that the brain was protected not only by the BBB, which avoided potential exogenous damage through the vascular system, but was also protected by an internal ISF drainage barrier to avoid potentially harmful interference from other ECS divisions in the deep brain. With the new findings and the proposed hypothesis, an innovative therapeutic method for the treatment of encephalopathy with local drug delivery via the brain ECS pathway was established. By using this new administration method, the drug was achieved directly to the space around neurons or target regions, overwhelming the impendence from the blood-brain barrier, thus solved the obstacles of low efficiency in traditional drug investigation. At present, new methods and discoveries developed by the author and his team have been widely applied in several frontier fields including neuroscience, new drug research and development, neurodevelopment aerospace medicine, clinical encephalopathy treatment,new neural network modeling and so on.
Brain ; Caudate Nucleus ; Extracellular Fluid ; Extracellular Space ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Hemiballism is a rare hyperkinetic involuntary movement disorder that presents with unilateral forceful, flinging, large amplitude of proximal limbs. The most consistent neuropathological findings in hemiballism are a lesion of the contralateral subthalamic nucleus and pallidosubthalamic tract. However, we experienced a patient with pure hemiballism as isolated manifestation of acute ischemic stroke without other neurological abnormal symptoms such as chorea or dystonia. Brain magnetic resonance image showed acute ischemic stroke in right caudate nucleus but not subthalamic nucleus.
Brain ; Caudate Nucleus ; Chorea ; Dyskinesias* ; Dystonia ; Extremities ; Humans ; Infarction* ; Stroke ; Subthalamic Nucleus

The present study was to investigate whether entopeduncular nucleus (EP) is involved in caudate-putamen nucleus (CPu) stimulation-induced analgesia and in acupuncture analgesia. It was found that the foot-withdrawal latency elicited by radiant heat exposure was increased after electroacupuncture analgesia (EA), and the nociceptive responses of neurons in parafascicular nucleus (Pf) were inhibited after EA or after excitation of CPu neurons in normal rats, but the foot-withdrawal latency and nociceptive responses of Pf neurons were unchanged by EA or excitation of CPu in the rats with lesion of EP by local application of kainic acid. The results obtained with microinjeciton of saline instead of kainic acid into the EP were the same with those in the nonlesioned control group. The differences in the results between the lesion group and the other groups were significant ( <0.05). It is suggested that EP is involved in acupuncture analgesia and also plays an important role in caudate-putamen nucleus stimulation-induced analgesia.
Acupuncture Analgesia ; Animals ; Caudate Nucleus ; physiology ; Electroacupuncture ; Electrophysiology ; Entopeduncular Nucleus ; physiology ; Female ; Male ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar

The organization of the striatal projection fibers from the hippocampal formation (HF) was studied in the monkey with particular emphasis on specific projections of the ventral striatum. Retrograde tracers were injected into the five different regions of the ventral striatum such as the ventromedial caudate nucleus, ventral shell, central shell, and dorsal core of the nucleus accumbens (NA), and ventrolateral putamen. The ventromedial caudate nucleus and the shell of the NA received dense projections from the HF. Although the ventromedial caudate nucleus and the shell of the NA are both innervated by the HF, the shell receives the larger of these projections. This suggests that the HF is more strongly connected with the shell of the NA than with the ventromedial caudate nucleus. There are no differences between the ventral shell and central shell of the NA. Labeled neurons were mainly observed in the rostral parts of the dorsomedial CA1 and adjacent subicular complex (prosubiculum, subiculum, presubiculum, and parasubiculum) of the HF. These results suggest that the shell of the NA is the main converging site receiving hippocampal projections primarily related to integrating visuospatial and limbic information.
Basal Ganglia* ; Caudate Nucleus ; Haplorhini ; Hippocampus ; Neurons ; Nucleus Accumbens ; Primates* ; Putamen

In light of recent reports of the effectiveness of Radix puerariae in the alcoholics and recent formulation of a hypothesis that craving far alcohol In the alcohol-dependent individual is mediated by a limbic circuit involving the fronto-thalamic and fronto-striatoaccumbal region, the authors studied the effect of Radix puerariae on craving for alcohol and cerebral blood flow(rCBF) of these regions. The subjects were hospitalized patients with alcohol dependence recovered from acute intoxication and withdrawal symptoms. On the first day of experiment, rCBF in the areas of caudate nuclei, thalamus and orbitofrontal cortices was measured by Single-Photon Emission Computed nomography. On the third day, the same procedure was repeated artier intake of a small priming dose of alcohol. Radix puerariae in dose of 12gm/day for 10 days was given from fourth day of experiment to the thirteenth day and on the eleventh and thirteenth days, the measurements of rCBF were repeated in the same method as in the first and third day, respectively. Immediately before measurements of the rCBF in each experiment, craving far alcohol was measured by means of Visual Analogue Scale. The results were as follows: 1) Before the treatment of radix puerariae, the alcohol-dependent patients developed a significant alcohol-induced alcohol craving and a concomitant increase of rCBF in the right head of caudate nucleus. 2) Radix puerariae significantly lowered alcohol crating and significantly increased rCBF In the right head of caudate nucleus and the left orbitofrontal cortex in alcohol-free, basal condition. 3) After the treatment of radix puerariae, the rCBF after alcohol intake in bilateral caudate nuclei and bilateral hemithalami was significantly decreased. 4) Radix puerariae did not induce post-alcohol craving for alcohol and significantly decreased post-alcohol rCBF in bilateral caudate nuclei. From these results, it is suggested that Radix puerariae decreases basal alcohol craving in the alcohol-dependent patients, and further that there ma!~ exist a significant association between these changes of alcohol craving and concomitant changes of rCBF in the limbic striatim, especially caudate nucleus.
Alcoholics ; Alcoholism* ; Caudate Nucleus ; Head ; Humans ; Pueraria* ; Substance Withdrawal Syndrome ; Thalamus ; Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon

PURPOSE: To evaluate the significance of high signal intensity of the septum pellucidum in hydrocephalus on proton density-weighted brain MR images. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Authors reviewed the MR images of 418 cases of patients with normal(175 cases), hydrocephalic(35 cases), atrophic(58 cases), and other groups(150 cases) retrospectively. We analyzed the signal intensity of the septum pellucidum in the normal group and the incidences of high signal intensities of periventricular area of frontal horn of lateral ventricle(area 1), periventricular area except area 1(area 2), callososeptal area(area 3), and septum pellucidum(area 4) in the normal and abnormal groups. RESULTS: In the normal group, the septurn pellucidum was isointense to the head of caudate nucleus on proton density-weighted image. High signal intensity of the septurn pellucidurn was seen in 31 cases (22 cases of hydrocephalus, 5 cases of brain atrophy, and 4 cases of others), and showed high specificity(91.4%) for hydrocephalus in spite of low sensitivity(62.9%), as compared with periventricular hyperintensities of other areas. CONCLUSION: High signal intensity of the septum pellucidum on proton density-weighted image may be caused by transependymal CSF migration in the patients with hydrocephalus, and considered as an additional finding of hydrocephalus in the cases of ventriculomegaly.
Animals ; Atrophy ; Brain ; Caudate Nucleus ; Head ; Horns ; Humans ; Hydrocephalus* ; Incidence ; Protons ; Retrospective Studies ; Septum Pellucidum*

OBJECTIVES: Because the caudate nucleus receives inputs from the dorsolateral prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortices, it is the area of the interest with ADHD patients in many researches. To identify the lack of normal asymmetry in the frontal lobe and caudate nucleus of the subjects with ADHD, one slice of brain MR images for each subjects were selected, and planimetric method was applied and analyzed. METHODS: The brain MR images of 14 ADHD boys who met the DSM-III-R diagnostic criteria and 16 headache control group were collected. Single best view far the head of the caudate nucleus, one axial slice was selected for analysis. MR images were redigitized with flatbed scanner and data were analyzed with Brainimage Pascal 2.3.3.1 software. Pixel counting and area measurements were done. Interrater reliabilities were 0.89 or greater. RESULTS: In both ADHD and control groups, right caudate area was slightly greater than left side, and this difference were more significant in control group. The results showed that the normal asymmetry of frontal lobe and the caudate nucleus was not observed for the ADHD group. CONCLUSION: The normal asymmetry of the frontal lobe and the caudate nucleus was not seen in boys with ADHD
Brain ; Caudate Nucleus* ; Frontal Lobe* ; Head ; Headache ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging