Yonsei Med J.  2013 Mar;54(2):315-320. 10.3349/ymj.2013.54.2.315.

Precommissural Fornix in the Human Brain: A Diffusion Tensor Tractography Study

• Yeo SS
• Seo JP
• Kwon YH
• Jang SH

• KMID: 1503891
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3349/ymj.2013.54.2.315

Abstract

PURPOSE
Other than a single case report, no diffusion tensor tractography (DTT) studies of the precommissural fornix in the human brain have been conducted. In the current study, we attempted to visualize the precommissural fornix in the human brain using DTT.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
We recruited 36 healthy volunteers for this study. Diffusion tensor images were scanned using a 1.5-T scanner, and the precommissural fornix was analyzed using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain (FMRIB) software. Values of fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), and tract volume of the precommissural fornix were measured.
RESULTS
The precommissural fornix originated from the hippocampal formation on each hemisphere as a crus; both crura were then joined to the body of the fornix. The body of the fornix continued anteriorly to the level just superior to the anterior commissure, where it divided into each column of the precommissural fornix. Each column descended anteriorly to the anterior commissure and terminated in the septal nuclei. Values of FA, MD, and tract volumes of the precommissural fornix did not differ between the right and left hemispheres (p>0.05).
CONCLUSION
We believe that the methodology and results of this study would be helpful to future research on the precommissural fornix and in the elucidation of the pathology of diseases involving the precommissural fornix.

Keyword

Diffusion tensor imaging; precommissural fornix; septal nucleus; hippocampus

MeSH Terms

Adult
Diffusion Tensor Imaging
Female
Fornix, Brain/*anatomy & histology
Humans
Male
Middle Aged

Figure

• 

  Fig. 1 (A) Seed regions of interest (ROI) were placed in the septal nuclei (yellow rectangle). The target ROI was placed in the crus of the fornix (yellow circle). (B) The pathway of the precommissural fornix is shown at each level of the brain in a normal subject (42-year-old male). (C) The pathway of the postcommissural fornix is shown at the anterior commissure level in a normal subject (42-year-old male). AC, anterior commissure.

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