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

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

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

PURPOSE: To identify the brain centers associated with visually evoked sexual arousal in the human brain, and to investigate the neural mechanism for sexual arousal using functional MRI (fMRI). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 20 sexually potent volunteers consisting of 10 males (mean age: 24) and 10 females (mean age: 23) underwent fMRI on a 1.5 T MR scanner (GE Signa Horizon). The fMRI data were obtained from 7 slices (10 mm slice thickness) parallel to the AC-PC (anterior commissure and posterior commissure) line, giving a total of 511 MR images. The sexual stimulation consisted of a 1-minute rest with black screen, followed by a 4-minute stimulation by an erotic video film, and concluded with a 2-minute rest. The brain activation maps and their quantification were analyzed by the statistical parametric mapping (SPM 99) program. RESULTS: The brain activation regions associated with visual sexual arousal in the limbic system are the posterior cingulate gyrus, parahippocampal gyrus, hypothalamus, medial cingulate gyrus, thalamus, amygdala, anterior cingulate gyrus, insula, hippocampus, caudate nucleus, globus pallidus and putamen. Especially, the parahippocampal gyrus, cingulate gyrus, thalamus and hypothalamus were highly activated in comparison with other areas. The overall activities of the limbic lobe, diencephalon, and basal ganglia were 11.8%, 10.5%, and 3.4%, respectively. In the correlation test between brain activity and sexual arousal, the hypothalamus and thalamus showed positive correlation, but the other brain areas showed no correlation. CONCLUSION: The fMRI is useful to quantitatively evaluate the cerebral activation associated with visually evoked, sexual arousal in the human brain. This result may be helpful by providing clinically valuable information on sexual disorder in humans as well as by increasing the understanding of the neuroanatomical correlates of sexual arousal.
Amygdala ; Arousal* ; Basal Ganglia ; Brain ; Caudate Nucleus ; Diencephalon ; Female ; Globus Pallidus ; Gyrus Cinguli ; Hippocampus ; Humans ; Hypothalamus ; Hypothalamus, Middle ; Limbic System* ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging* ; Male ; Parahippocampal Gyrus ; Putamen ; Thalamus ; Volunteers

BACKGROUND: Quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) has been used to measure iron accumulation in the deep nuclei of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). This study examined the relationship between non-motor symptoms (NMSs) and iron accumulation in the deep nuclei of patients with PD. METHODS: The QSM data were acquired from 3-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in 29 patients with early PD and 19 normal controls. The Korean version of the NMS scale (K-NMSS) was used for evaluation of NMSs in patients. The patients were divided into high NMS and low NMS groups. The region-of-interest analyses were performed in the following deep nuclei: red nucleus, substantia nigra pars compacta, substantia nigra pars reticulata, dentate nucleus, globus pallidus, putamen, and head of the caudate nucleus. RESULTS: Thirteen patients had high NMS scores (total K-NMSS score, mean = 32.1), and 16 had low NMS scores (10.6). The QSM values in the deep were not different among the patients with high NMS scores, low NMS scores, and controls. The QSM values were not correlated linearly with K-NMSS total score after adjusting the age at acquisition of brain MRI. CONCLUSION: The study demonstrated that the NMS burdens are not associated with iron accumulation in the deep nuclei of patients with PD. These results suggest that future neuroimaging studies on the pathology of NMSs in PD should use more specific and detailed clinical tools and recruit PD patients with severe NMSs.
Basal Ganglia ; Brain ; Caudate Nucleus ; Cerebellar Nuclei ; Globus Pallidus ; Head ; Humans ; Iron* ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Neuroimaging ; Parkinson Disease* ; Pars Compacta ; Pars Reticulata ; Pathology ; Putamen ; Red Nucleus

The category of striatal complex contains caudate nucleus, putamen, nucleus accumbens septi, and olfactory tubercle. The striatal complex is composed of two compartments, dorsal and ventral striatum. In the striatum, cholinergic neuron is known as one of the most important intrinsic neurons, but there were little morphological reports about the early postnatal expression of mouse striatal cholinergic neurons. So, we planned to investigate the distribution of mouse striatal cholinergic neurons in their early postnatal period by the immunohistochemistry. We used ICR mouse as the experimental animals and divided them into 5 groups according to their postnatal age : 3-day, 1-week, 2-week, 4-week, and 6-week. Immunohistochemistry was done with anti-choline acetyl transferase antibody (chemicon). The results were as follow. 1 The striatal cholinergic neurons are already detected in the 3-day group, but the intensity was weak and the expression rate was extremely low. In the caudoputamen, the cholinergic expression rate was increased significantly between 3-day and 2-week. And in the nucleus accumbens septi, it was increased significantly between 1-week and 2-week. 2. The cholinergic expression rates of the adult mouse striatum were similar in both compartments. But, the difference of maturational time was noted. In the dorsal striatum, the cholinergic expression rate was increased significantly in the first postnatal week, but in the ventral striatum, it was approached to the adult level only after second postnatal week. In conclusion, the cholinergic expression rate in the mouse striatum was significantly increased after birth. And it was approached nearly to the adult level after 2-week of postnatal age. But, according to the compartments or rostrocaudal subdivisions, the difference of maturational time was noted.
Adult ; Animals ; Basal Ganglia ; Caudate Nucleus ; Cholinergic Neurons* ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Mice* ; Mice, Inbred ICR ; Neurons ; Nucleus Accumbens ; Olfactory Pathways ; Parturition ; Putamen ; Transferases

The nucleus accumbens (NAc) is the major component of the ventral striatum that regulates stress-induced depression. The NAc receives dopaminergic inputs from the ventral tegmental area (VTA), and the role of VTA-NAc neurons in stress response has been recently characterized. The NAc also receives glutamatergic inputs from various forebrain structures including the prelimbic cortex (PL), basolateral amygdala (BLA), and ventral hippocampus (vHIP), whereas the role of those glutamatergic afferents in stress response remains underscored. In the present study, we investigated the extent to which descending glutamatergic neurons activated by stress in the PL, BLA, and vHIP project to the NAc. To specifically label the input neurons into the NAc, fluorescent-tagged cholera toxin subunit B (CTB), which can be used as a retrograde neuronal tracer, was injected into the NAc. After two weeks, the mice were placed under restraint for 1 h. Subsequent histological analyses indicated that CTB-positive cells were detected in 170~680 cells/mm² in the PL, BLA, and vHIP, and those CTB-positive cells were mostly glutamatergic. In the PL, BLA, and vHIP regions analyzed, stress-induced c-Fos expression was found in 20~100 cells/mm². Among the CTB-positive cells, 2.6% in the PL, 4.2% in the BLA, and 1.1% in the vHIP were co-labeled by c-Fos, whereas among c-Fos-positive cells, 7.7% in the PL, 19.8% in the BLA, and 8.5% in the vHIP were co-labeled with CTB. These results suggest that the NAc receives a significant but differing proportion of glutamatergic inputs from the PL, BLA, and vHIP in stress response.
Animals ; Basolateral Nuclear Complex ; Cholera Toxin ; Depression ; Hippocampus ; Mice ; Neurons* ; Nucleus Accumbens* ; Prosencephalon ; Ventral Striatum ; Ventral Tegmental Area

BACKGROUND: Although dystonic posturing (DP) during temporal lobe seizures is known to be related to basal ganglia activation, the mechanism of the dystonic posturing has not been investigated in greater details . METHODS: Thirty-two patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) underwent ictal and interictal SPECTs. They were classified into two groups: 1) DP with ictal dystonia during ictal SPECT (N=15) and 2) Non-DP without dystonia (N=17). Ictal-interictal SPECT subtraction was performed as follows: co-registration, intensity normalization, subtraction, thresholding and then an overlay to SPGR MRI. The presence and intensity of ictal hyperperfusion were determined in frontal lobe, basal ganglia, temporal lobe and insular cortex. RESULTS: The incidences of ictal hyperperfusion in DP vs. Non-DP were caudate nucleus [80.0%(12/15 patients) vs. 0% (0/17), p=0.001], putamen [93.3% (14/15) vs. 48.2% (8/17), p=0.005], globus pallidus [53.3% (8/15) vs. 23.5% (4/17), p=0.082], thalamus [80.0% (12/15) vs. 41.2% (7/17), p=0.026], insular cortex [46.7% (7/15) vs.23.5% (4/17), p=0.051], orbitofrontal [46.7% (6/15) vs. 35.3% (7/17), p=0.053], medial frontal [6.7% (1/15) vs. 18.7% (2/17), p=0.621], dorsolateral frontal [13.3% (2/15) vs. 18.7%(2/17), p=0.737] in the hemisphere of epileptic side. In patients who showed ictal hyperperfusion in striatum and thalamus, the average intensity of hyperperfusion in DP vs. Non-DP was caudate nucleus 1.67 vs. 0.0, putamen 2.20 vs. 1.05, globus pallidus 1.2 vs. 0.65, thalamus 2.00 vs. 0.88 in the epileptic hemisphere. CONCLUSIONS: Caudate nucleus as well as putamen appeared to be important for producing ictal dystonia during TLE seizures. The greater intensity of ictal hyperperfusion in putamen, caudate nucleus and thalamus seems to be related to ictal dystonia.
Basal Ganglia ; Brain* ; Caudate Nucleus ; Dystonia ; Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe ; Frontal Lobe ; Globus Pallidus ; Humans ; Incidence ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Putamen ; Seizures* ; Temporal Lobe* ; Thalamus ; Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon

BACKGROUND: Although dystonic posturing (DP) during temporal lobe seizures is known to be related to basal ganglia activation, the mechanism of the dystonic posturing has not been investigated in greater details . METHODS: Thirty-two patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) underwent ictal and interictal SPECTs. They were classified into two groups: 1) DP with ictal dystonia during ictal SPECT (N=15) and 2) Non-DP without dystonia (N=17). Ictal-interictal SPECT subtraction was performed as follows: co-registration, intensity normalization, subtraction, thresholding and then an overlay to SPGR MRI. The presence and intensity of ictal hyperperfusion were determined in frontal lobe, basal ganglia, temporal lobe and insular cortex. RESULTS: The incidences of ictal hyperperfusion in DP vs. Non-DP were caudate nucleus [80.0%(12/15 patients) vs. 0% (0/17), p=0.001], putamen [93.3% (14/15) vs. 48.2% (8/17), p=0.005], globus pallidus [53.3% (8/15) vs. 23.5% (4/17), p=0.082], thalamus [80.0% (12/15) vs. 41.2% (7/17), p=0.026], insular cortex [46.7% (7/15) vs.23.5% (4/17), p=0.051], orbitofrontal [46.7% (6/15) vs. 35.3% (7/17), p=0.053], medial frontal [6.7% (1/15) vs. 18.7% (2/17), p=0.621], dorsolateral frontal [13.3% (2/15) vs. 18.7%(2/17), p=0.737] in the hemisphere of epileptic side. In patients who showed ictal hyperperfusion in striatum and thalamus, the average intensity of hyperperfusion in DP vs. Non-DP was caudate nucleus 1.67 vs. 0.0, putamen 2.20 vs. 1.05, globus pallidus 1.2 vs. 0.65, thalamus 2.00 vs. 0.88 in the epileptic hemisphere. CONCLUSIONS: Caudate nucleus as well as putamen appeared to be important for producing ictal dystonia during TLE seizures. The greater intensity of ictal hyperperfusion in putamen, caudate nucleus and thalamus seems to be related to ictal dystonia.
Basal Ganglia ; Brain* ; Caudate Nucleus ; Dystonia ; Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe ; Frontal Lobe ; Globus Pallidus ; Humans ; Incidence ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Putamen ; Seizures* ; Temporal Lobe* ; Thalamus ; Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon

BACKGROUND: Involuntary movement is a rare symptom of stroke. The pathophysiologic mechanism is poorly understood. METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated the medical records of 1547 stroke patients who have been admitted to the Seoul National University Hospital from March, 1988 to March, 1997. RESULTS: We found 18 patients with involuntary movements. Dystonia was observed in 10 patients, ballism or chorea in 8 patients and tremor in 5 patients. Anatomical structures responsible for dystonia were thalamus, lenticular nucleus, caudate nucleus and midbrain. Ballism-chorea was associated with lesions of subthalamic nucleus, thalamus, and lenticular nucleus. Tremor was associtated with lesions of thalamus, lenticular nucleus and midbrain. Ballism-chorea was present in the onset of stroke in 6 cases, 2 months after stroke in 1 case, and 21 months after in 1 case. But only 1 case of dystonia was present in the onset of stroke, 2 cases within 7 days, 5 cases in one week to one month, and 2 cases after one month. The involuntary movements subsided in 5 cases of hemiballism-chorea and in 3 cases of dystonia In most of the improved cases, the symptoms subsided in a month. CONCLUSIONS: Basal ganglia and thalamus were the main areas involved where lesions associated with involuntary movements were reported. The nature of involuntary movements was variable. However, lesions in subthalamic nucleus resulted only in ballism-chorea. The presence of only ballism chorea, but not any other involuntary movements, due to subthalamic nucleus lesions indicates that an indirect pathway may play a role in the pathogenesis of ballism-chorea. The latency between the onset of stroke and involuntary movements was longer in dystonia than ballism-chorea. The course of ballism-chorea was generally better than dystona.
Basal Ganglia ; Caudate Nucleus ; Chorea ; Corpus Striatum ; Dyskinesias* ; Dystonia ; Humans ; Medical Records ; Mesencephalon ; Retrospective Studies ; Seoul ; Stroke* ; Subthalamic Nucleus ; Thalamus ; Tremor