Anterior commissure at a glance
- What it is
- The anterior commissure is a small bundle of white matter fibres that links the two cerebral hemispheres in front of the fornix columns.
- Location
- It crosses the midline in the lamina terminalis, just anterior to the columns of the fornix and below the rostrum of the corpus callosum.
- Function
- Its anterior part connects the olfactory structures and its posterior part mainly connects the temporal lobes, including the amygdalae and temporal cortex of both sides.
- Body system
- Nervous · single, midline structure
- FMA ID
- FMA61961 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Phylogenetically older than the corpus callosum.
- Forms part of the anterior wall of the third ventricle.
Structures next to the anterior commissure
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Lamina terminalis · nervous
- Hypothalamus · nervous
- Interventricular foramen · nervous
- Optic chiasm · nervous
- Mammillary body · nervous
- Anterior communicating artery · cardiovascular
- Pericallosal artery · cardiovascular
- Anterior cerebral artery · cardiovascular
- Third ventricle · nervous
- Anterolateral central branch of middle cerebral artery · cardiovascular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Anterior commissure (FMA61961). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
- OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §12.1 Basic Structure and Function of the Nervous System. Rice University, 2022.
- Mitsuhashi N. et al. (2009). BodyParts3D: 3D structure database for anatomical concepts. Nucleic Acids Research 37, D782–D785. Data © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0.
Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.