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Basal ganglia

Dr Frank Gaillard and Dr Jeremy Jones et al.

The basal ganglia is a group of nuclei in the brain that is interconnected with the cerebral cortex, thalami and brainstem.

In a strict anatomical sense it contains three paired nuclei:

caudate nucleus
putamen (together with the caudate nucleus known as corpus striatum)
globus pallidus (together with the putamen known as the lentiform nucleus)

Functionally, two additional nuclei are also part of the basal ganglia:

Related pathology

References

Article Information:

System: Central Nervous System

Section: Anatomy

Basal ganglia location Images taken from wikipedia from the out of copyright Gray's anatomy.Basal ganglia locationOriginal file: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Telencephalon-Horiconatal.jpgBasal ganglia (coronal)Permission: GFDLOriginal file: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Basal-ganglia-coronal-sections-large.pngDopamine in PDThe image shows dopaminergic pathways of the human brain in normal condition (left) and Parkinsons Disease (right). Red Arrows indicate suppression of the target, blue arrows indicate stimulation of target structure.Permission: GNU freeOriginal file: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DA-loops_in_PD.jpg

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Brainstem nuclei and their connections Images from Gray's anatomy (out of copyright)

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