Posted by linkadge on April 30, 2010, at 13:49:14
In reply to Why do we have a caudate nucleus?, posted by Netch on April 30, 2010, at 7:48:43
Obviously it does something! Patients with damage to the caudate nucleus (or who have undergone psychosurgery to abelate some of its density) often show cognitive impairment in the form of absent fear processing, apathy and/or deficits in sustained attention.
Hyperactivity of the caudate neucleus has been noted in many psychiatric disorders. Treatment with lithium, olanzapine, omega-3's and some other agents appears to increase the densitiy and grey matter in this region.
If the clinical improvement corresponds to increased densitity of this region, one would think that some of the disorder is caused by underconnectivity in this region.
This area is highly connected to the prefrontal cortex.
Perhaps feelings of chronic rumination are simply due to the fact that the decreased connectivity in this region corresponds with a reduced ability to effetively / appropriately deal with stressors and ultimately shut the region off?
Linkadge
poster:linkadge
thread:945688
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100425/msgs/945744.html