Caudate nucleus at a glance
- What it is
- The caudate nucleus is a C-shaped nucleus of the basal ganglia that, with the putamen, forms the striatum.
- Location
- It lies along the lateral wall of the lateral ventricle, with a head in the frontal horn, a body beside the central part, and a tail curving into the temporal lobe.
- Function
- It receives input from the cerebral cortex and takes part in motor control loops, and also in learning, planning and goal-directed behaviour.
- Body system
- Nervous · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA72827 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Head is separated from the putamen by fibres of the anterior limb of the internal capsule.
- Dopaminergic input comes from the substantia nigra pars compacta.
Clinical relevance
Degeneration of the caudate (and putamen) is characteristic of Huntington disease.
Structures next to the caudate nucleus
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Internal capsule · nervous
- Globus pallidus · nervous
- Anterolateral central branch of middle cerebral artery · cardiovascular
- Cingulate gyrus · nervous
- Putamen · nervous
- Stria terminalis · nervous
- Fornix of forebrain · nervous
- Thalamus · nervous
- Pericallosal artery · cardiovascular
- Interventricular foramen · nervous
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Caudate nucleus (FMA72827). 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.
Related anatomy
Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.