ANAT 321 Lecture 31: Neural Circuitry of Motivation and Emotion II
4 Dec 2016
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Document Summary
The hypothalamus is the key nodal point in pathways concerned with autonomic, endocrine, somatic and motivational functions concerned with maintenance of homeostasis: principally responsible for homeostasis. The medial zone (and to a lesser extent the lateral and periventricular zones) consists of numerous discrete nuclei that carry out specific functions. Each of them are specific functional units: collections of neurons that have specific functions regarding the maintenance of homeostasis. The hypothalamus has reciprocal connections with forebrain limbic structures and with the brainstem and spinal cord. Those connections from the brainstem are involved in sensory input: conveying information of what is going on in the body to the hypothalamus, the hypothalamus is also conveying back to the brainstem, coordinating outputs involved in regulating homeostasis. Inputs from the orbitofrontal cortex, cingulate cortex, the insula, ventral striatum and the septal nuclei travel in the medial forebrain bundle. Inputs from the hippocampus pass through the fornix to the mammillary bodies.
