Fornix of forebrain at a glance
- What it is
- The fornix is a C-shaped white matter tract that carries the main output of the hippocampus.
- Location
- It arches beneath the corpus callosum, from the hippocampus in the temporal lobe over the thalamus to the mammillary bodies, forming part of the lateral ventricle and third ventricle borders.
- Function
- It connects the hippocampus with the mammillary bodies, septal area and hypothalamus, and is important for memory.
- Body system
- Nervous · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA72925 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Divided into crus, body and columns.
- Part of the Papez circuit.
- Columns pass in front of the interventricular foramen.
Clinical relevance
Fornix damage is associated with memory impairment.
Structures next to the fornix of forebrain
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Stria terminalis · nervous
- Thalamus · nervous
- Lateral ventricle · nervous
- Medial geniculate body · nervous
- Lateral geniculate body · nervous
- Cingulate gyrus · nervous
- Caudate nucleus · nervous
- Optic tract · nervous
- Anterior choroidal artery · cardiovascular
- Choroid plexus of cerebral hemisphere · nervous
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Fornix of forebrain (FMA72925). 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.