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

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

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

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

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

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 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

An analysis and CT findings in 21 adult patients of spontaneous intracerebral hematoma(SICH) mixed with CSF who were admitted to the Fatima Hospital from December 1986 to May 1989. The following results were obtained; 1) We could differentiated SICH that have inhomogenous density and thought that it is composed of blood, CSF and blood-CSF mixture. 2) Previously reported pathways that intracerebral hematoma rupture into the ventricle are caudate nucleus and thalamus but intracerebral hematoma can be mixed with CSF through the subarachnoid space of Sylvian fissure as an another route. 3) Intracerebral hematoma mixed with CSF was removed easily, safely and enoughly with simple aspiration method as like resoluted hematoma in subacute or chronic phase. 4) The prognosis of patients with SICH mixed with CSF was very good unlike to that of patients with pure intracerebral hematoma and/or ventricular hemorrhage.
Adult ; Caudate Nucleus ; Hematoma* ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Prognosis ; Rupture ; Subarachnoid Space ; Thalamus

OBJECTIVES: The first objective of this study was to examine the extent to which the results of the visual interpretation of brain single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) images correspond with those of SPM analysis in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). The second objective was to explore the possibility of the clinical application of SPM analysis for finding the brain lesions related to the neuropsychiatric symptoms, of which the patients complained. METHODS: SPECT images from 10 TBI patients (all male, mean age: 46.8+/-12.32) and 10 age- and sex-matched control subjects were interpreted by an experienced radiologist. Their SPECT images were also analyzed by SPM2 software for comparing the individual images with the controls. RESULTS: The results of visual interpretation of SPECT images generally corresponded with those of SPM analysis in five of the 10 TBI cases. In the remaining cases, brain lesions not identified from visual interpretation were found through SPM analysis. The location of these lesions included the anterior cingulate gyrus, caudate nucleus, thalamus, and subcallosal gyrus. SPM analysis also made it easy to find brain hypoperfusion areas associated with the TBI patients' neuropsychiatric symptoms. CONCLUSION: This study suggested possible clinical applications of SPM analysis of SPECT data from patients with TBI. Its advantages and limitations were discussed.
Brain ; Brain Injuries ; Caudate Nucleus ; Gyrus Cinguli ; Humans ; Male ; Thalamus ; Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon

We report a rare case of cavernous hemangioma (CH) which developed in adjacent location to a preexisting CH after gamma knife radiosurgery (GKRS). A 36-year-old woman underwent GKRS for a CH in the left lentiform nucleus. Three-and-half years after radiosurgery, MRI revealed a new CH in the left caudate nucleus. Surgical excision of the new lesion was performed. The pathological examination confirmed the diagnosis of CH. In radiosurgery for CH, it should be noted that a new CH may develop, which is likely to result from the interaction between radiation and predisposing factors of the patient.
Adult ; Caudate Nucleus ; Caves ; Corpus Striatum ; Female ; Hemangioma, Cavernous ; Humans ; Radiosurgery