Lamina terminalis at a glance
- What it is
- The lamina terminalis is a thin sheet of tissue that forms the anterior wall of the third ventricle.
- Location
- It stretches from the optic chiasm to the anterior commissure and rostrum of the corpus callosum.
- Function
- It marks the closed anterior end of the embryonic neural tube and forms the front boundary of the third ventricle.
- Body system
- Nervous · single, midline structure
- FMA ID
- FMA61975 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Contains the organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis, a circumventricular organ.
- It is a common neurosurgical route into the third ventricle (lamina terminalis fenestration).
- The OVLT within it senses blood osmolality and helps trigger thirst and ADH release.
Structures next to the lamina terminalis
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Optic chiasm · nervous
- Hypothalamus · nervous
- Anterior commissure · nervous
- Anterior communicating artery · cardiovascular
- Anterior cerebral artery · cardiovascular
- Mammillary body · nervous
- Posterior communicating artery · cardiovascular
- Pituitary gland · endocrine
- Precommunicating part of posterior cerebral artery · cardiovascular
- Interventricular foramen · nervous
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Lamina terminalis (FMA61975). 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.