Selden N R, Gitelman D R, Salamon-Murayama N, Parrish T B, Mesulam M M
Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer Disease Center, Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, Illinois 60611, USA.
Brain. 1998 Dec;121 ( Pt 12):2249-57. doi: 10.1093/brain/121.12.2249.
All sectors of the human cerebral cortex receive dense cholinergic input. The origin of this projection is located in the Ch4 cell group of the nucleus basalis of Meynert. However, very little is known about the location of the pathways which link the cholinergic neurons of the nucleus basalis to the human cerebral cortex. This question was addressed in whole-hemisphere sections processed for the visualization of multiple cholinergic markers. Two highly organized and discrete bundles of cholinergic fibres extended from the nucleus basalis to the cerebral cortex and amygdala and were designated as the medial and lateral cholinergic pathways. These bundles contained acetylcholinesterase, choline acetyltransferase and nerve growth factor receptors, confirming their cholinergic nature and origin within the basal forebrain. The medial pathway joined the white matter of the gyrus rectus, curved around the rostrum of the corpus callosum to enter the cingulum and merged with fibres of the lateral pathway within the occipital lobe. It supplied the parolfactory, cingulate, pericingulate and retrosplenial cortices. The lateral pathway was subdivided into a capsular division travelling in the white matter of the external capsule and uncinate fasciculus and a perisylvian division travelling within the claustrum. Branches of the perisylvian division supplied the frontoparietal operculum, insula and superior temporal gyrus. Branches of the capsular division innervated the remaining parts of the frontal, parietal and temporal neocortex. Representation of these cholinergic pathways within a 3D MRI volume helped to identify white matter lesion sites that could interfere with the corticopetal flow of cholinergic pathways.
人类大脑皮层的所有区域都接受密集的胆碱能输入。这种投射的起源位于迈内特基底核的Ch4细胞群。然而，关于将基底核的胆碱能神经元与人类大脑皮层连接起来的通路位置，我们所知甚少。在处理过的全脑切片中，通过多种胆碱能标记物的可视化来解决这个问题。两束高度有序且离散的胆碱能纤维束从基底核延伸至大脑皮层和杏仁核，被命名为内侧和外侧胆碱能通路。这些纤维束含有乙酰胆碱酯酶、胆碱乙酰转移酶和神经生长因子受体，证实了它们的胆碱能性质以及起源于基底前脑。内侧通路连接直回的白质，绕过胼胝体嘴进入扣带，在枕叶内与外侧通路的纤维合并。它供应嗅旁、扣带、扣带周和压后皮质。外侧通路分为在外侧囊和钩束白质中走行的囊部以及在屏状核内走行的颞周部。颞周部的分支供应额顶岛盖、岛叶和颞上回。囊部的分支支配额叶、顶叶和颞叶新皮质的其余部分。这些胆碱能通路在三维磁共振成像体积内的呈现有助于识别可能干扰胆碱能通路向皮质流动的白质病变部位。
