Subcortical nuclei

Basal ganglia are a group of subcortical nuclei which are essential for the coordination of movements (so-called extrapyramidal system). They include the caudate nucleus, putamen, globus pallidus, and lenti-form nucleus. Damage of the basal ganglia results in involuntary movements, as are observed in Parkinson s disease and Huntington s chorea. 

The basal ganglia are a group of subcortical nuclei which are components of modular circuits involved in many cortical functions. They have received considerable attention from basic scientists and clinicians alike because of their prominent involvement in movement disorders, a spectrum of diseases including disorders which are characterized by poverty of movement (hypokinetic disorders), as well as disorders characterized by excess movement (hyperkinetic disorders). It has become clear in recent years that most basal ganglia disorders are not restricted to motor disturbances, but involve cognitive and emotional features as well. 

The basal ganglia are parts of larger circuits. The basal ganglia are a group of related subcortical nuclei, including... 

Figure la. Ascending activation from subcortical nuclei (see Fig. 2a) generates a stable platform of consciousness, essential for normal cognitive functions such as selective attention, learning and memory, and higher executive functions (Walker Ballard, 1998). 

Chalmers DT, Lovenberg TW, De Souza EB (1995) Localization of novel corticotropinreleasing factor receptor (CRF2) mRNA expression to specific subcortical nuclei in rat brain comparison with CRFl receptor mRNA expression. J Neurosci 15 6340-6350... 

Bielau, H., Trubner, K., Krell, D., Agelink, M.W., Bernstein, H.G., Stauch, R., Mawrin, C., Danos, P., Gerhard, L., Bogerts, B., Baumann, B. (2005). Volume deficits of subcortical nuclei in mood disorders A postmortem study. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci, 255,401-12. 

Polysynaptic neuronal pathways involving the basal ganglia and related subcortical nuclei that influence motor behaviour. 

Wilcock GK, Esiri MM, Bowen DM, Hughes AO (1988) The differential involvement of subcortical nuclei in senile dementia of Alzheimer s type. J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 51 842-849. 

Besides the neuritic plaque, the other diagnostic lesion of AD is the neurofibrillary tangle. Tangles are non-membrane-bound masses of paired helical filaments, usually intermixed with straight filaments, found in the perinuclear cytoplasm of many limbic and cortical neuronal cell bodies. Smaller bundles of these abnormal filaments may occur in many, but not all, of the cortical dystrophic neurites found within and also separate from the neuritic plaques. Tangles are also observed in neurons of the subcortical nuclei (e.g., the cholinergic septal nuclei and nucleus basalis of Meynert) that project widely to limbic and association cortices rich in A/9 deposits. 

Of significant interest are the most recent studies in rats that evaluate the thymus-reproductive and thymus-stress axes. Both in vitro administration of thymosin P4 into the medial basal hypothalamus and pituitary in chambers and in vivo administration into the cerebrovascular system have induced elevations of LH in media and serum, respectively (Rebar et al., 1981b Hall et al., 1983). Localization studies have demonstrated that the rat olfactory bulb has the highest concentration of thymosin 4, although it is also present in several other distinct sites (Hannappel et al., 1982). On the other hand, Toj did not influence levels of LH. Nevertheless, Ta is also present in the brain (Hall et al., 1982 Palaszynski et al., 1983), with its highest concentrations in the subcortical nuclei involved with both the autonomic and neuroendocrine system. These sites include both the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus. When injected intracranially, thymosin otj stimulated a rise in serum corticosterone in mice (Hall et al., 1982). The increase was rapid (<3 hours) and did not occur in experiments where the peptide was incubated with cultured adrenal fasciculata cells (Vahouny et al., 1983). 

Subcortical nuclei basal nucleus of Meynert, amygdala, and substantia nigra... 

Parkinson s disease primarily affects the part of the brain known as the basal ganglia, which consists of five interconnected, subcortical nuclei that span the telencephalon... 

Diehl, B., Symms, M.R., Boulby, PA., Salmenpera, T, Wheeler-Kingshott, C.A., Barker, G.J., and Duncan, J.S. 2005. Postictal diffusion tensor imaging. Epilepsy Res 65(3) 137-146 Dreifuss, S., Vingerhoets, F.J., Lazeyras, R, Andino, S.G, SpineUi, L., DelaveUe, J.,and Seeck, M. 2001. Volumetric measurements of subcortical nuclei in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy. 

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