Inferior longitudinal fasciculus

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Inferior longitudinal fasciculus
Sobo 1909 671 - Inferior longitudinal fasciculus.png
Medial surface of right cerebral hemisphere. Some of major association tracts are depicted. Inferior longitudinal fasciculus labeled at bottom right, in red.
Tractography - Inferior longitudinal fasciculus - animation 1.gif
Tractography showing inferior longitudinal fasciculus.
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Identifiers
Latin fasciculus longitudinalis inferior cerebri
NeuroNames 1443
TA98 A14.1.09.556
TA2 5598
FMA 77632
Anatomical terms of neuroanatomy

The inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF) is traditionally considered one of the major occipitotemporal association tracts. It is the white matter backbone of the ventral visual stream. It connects the ventral surface of the anterior temporal lobe and the extrastriate cortex of the occipital lobe, running along the lateral and inferior wall of the lateral ventricle.

Contents

The existence of this fasciculus and its anatomical description [1] [2] have been the subject of several mutually conflicting studies. Some authors denied its existence because of the unclear results obtained in non-human brains. [3] [4]

Using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), several authors have confirmed the presence of this constant longitudinal pathway in humans. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]

Some other studies of the ILF [10] [11] [12] [13] based on Klingler's dissection method (a type of white matter blunt dissection, providing reliable data on the anatomy of major fibre bundles [14] and, in some cases, additional tractography [13] [15] not only confirmed the classical descriptions of the direct connection between occipital and temporal regions but also sought to detail the subcomponents of this association tract.

Four branches were consistently identified: a fusiform branch connecting the fusiform gyrus to the anterior temporal regions; a dorsolateral occipital branch connecting the superior, middle and inferior occipital gyri to the anterior temporal regions; a lingual branch connecting the lingual gyrus to the anterior part of the middle temporal gyrus; and a minor cuneal branch connecting the cuneus to the anterior mesial temporal gyri. [13] [15]

Functions of the ILF

Summarising studies from healthy individuals, intraoperative and lesional findings, this white matter bundle supports functions linked to the ventral visual stream such as object recognition and face perception, [16] Likewise, disorders linked to this white matter tract are disorders with perturbed visual perception such as associative visual agnosia, [17] prosopagnosia, [18] [19] visual amnesia, [20] visual hypo-emotionality; [21] [22] [23] [24] but also some forms of autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia and alexia. [25] [26] [27]

ILF supports brain functions concerning the visual modality, including object, face and place processing, reading, lexical and semantic processing, emotion processing, and visual memory. Based on these recent findings ILF can be described as a multi-functional white matter pathway involved in visually guided behavior (See Herbet et al. for review [28] ).

Related Research Articles

Agnosia

Agnosia is the inability to process sensory information. Often there is a loss of ability to recognize objects, persons, sounds, shapes, or smells while the specific sense is not defective nor is there any significant memory loss. It is usually associated with brain injury or neurological illness, particularly after damage to the occipitotemporal border, which is part of the ventral stream. Agnosia only affects a single modality, such as vision or hearing. More recently, a top-down interruption is considered to cause the disturbance of handling perceptual information.

Visual system Body parts responsible for sight

The visual system comprises the sensory organ and parts of the central nervous system which gives organisms the sense of sight as well as enabling the formation of several non-image photo response functions. It detects and interprets information from the optical spectrum perceptible to that species to "build a representation" of the surrounding environment. The visual system carries out a number of complex tasks, including the reception of light and the formation of monocular neural representations, colour vision, the neural mechanisms underlying stereopsis and assessment of distances to and between objects, the identification of particular object of interest, motion perception, the analysis and integration of visual information, pattern recognition, accurate motor coordination under visual guidance, and more. The neuropsychological side of visual information processing is known as visual perception, an abnormality of which is called visual impairment, and a complete absence of which is called blindness. Non-image forming visual functions, independent of visual perception, include the pupillary light reflex (PLR) and circadian photoentrainment.

Occipital lobe

The occipital lobe is one of the four major lobes of the cerebral cortex in the brain of mammals. The name derives from its position at the back of the head, from the Latin ob, behind, and caput, the head.

Prosopagnosia Cognitive disorder of face perception

Prosopagnosia, also called face blindness, is a cognitive disorder of face perception in which the ability to recognize familiar faces, including one's own face (self-recognition), is impaired, while other aspects of visual processing and intellectual functioning remain intact. The term originally referred to a condition following acute brain damage, but a congenital or developmental form of the disorder also exists, with a prevalence rate of 2.5%. The specific brain area usually associated with prosopagnosia is the fusiform gyrus, which activates specifically in response to faces. The functionality of the fusiform gyrus allows most people to recognize faces in more detail than they do similarly complex inanimate objects. For those with prosopagnosia, the new method for recognizing faces depends on the less sensitive object-recognition system. The right hemisphere fusiform gyrus is more often involved in familiar face recognition than the left. It remains unclear whether the fusiform gyrus is only specific for the recognition of human faces or if it is also involved in highly trained visual stimuli.

Cerebrum Large part of the brain containing the cerebral cortex

The cerebrum, telencephalon or endbrain, is the largest part of the brain containing the cerebral cortex, as well as several subcortical structures, including the hippocampus, basal ganglia, and olfactory bulb. In the human brain, the cerebrum is the uppermost region of the central nervous system. The cerebrum develops prenatally from the forebrain (prosencephalon). In mammals, the dorsal telencephalon, or pallium, develops into the cerebral cortex, and the ventral telencephalon, or subpallium, becomes the basal ganglia. The cerebrum is also divided into approximately symmetric left and right cerebral hemispheres.

Optic radiation

The optic radiation are axons from the neurons in the lateral geniculate nucleus to the primary visual cortex. The optic radiation receives blood through deep branches of the middle cerebral artery and posterior cerebral artery.

Fusiform gyrus Gyrus of the temporal and occipital lobes of the brain

The fusiform gyrus, also known as the lateral occipitotemporal gyrus,is part of the temporal lobe and occipital lobe in Brodmann area 37. The fusiform gyrus is located between the lingual gyrus and parahippocampal gyrus above, and the inferior temporal gyrus below. Though the functionality of the fusiform gyrus is not fully understood, it has been linked with various neural pathways related to recognition. Additionally, it has been linked to various neurological phenomena such as synesthesia, dyslexia, and prosopagnosia.

Arcuate fasciculus

The arcuate fasciculus (AF) is a bundle of axons that generally connects the Broca's area and the Wernicke's area in the brain. It is an association fiber tract connecting caudal temporal cortex and inferior frontal lobe. Fasciculus arcuatus is latin for curved bundle.

Inferior temporal gyrus One of three gyri of the temporal lobe of the brain

The inferior temporal gyrus is one of three gyri of the temporal lobe and is located below the middle temporal gyrus, connected behind with the inferior occipital gyrus; it also extends around the infero-lateral border on to the inferior surface of the temporal lobe, where it is limited by the inferior sulcus. This region is one of the higher levels of the ventral stream of visual processing, associated with the representation of objects, places, faces, and colors. It may also be involved in face perception, and in the recognition of numbers.

Superior parietal lobule

The superior parietal lobule is bounded in front by the upper part of the postcentral sulcus, but is usually connected with the postcentral gyrus above the end of the sulcus. The superior parietal lobule contains Brodmann's areas 5 and 7.

Commissural fiber axons that connect the two hemispheres of the brain

The commissural fibers or transverse fibers are axons that connect the two hemispheres of the brain. In contrast to commissural fibers, association fibers connect regions within the same hemisphere of the brain, and projection fibers connect each region to other parts of the brain or to the spinal cord.

Occipitofrontal fasciculus

The occipitofrontal fasciculus, also known as the fronto-occipital fasciculus, passes backward from the frontal lobe, along the lateral border of the caudate nucleus, and on the medial aspect of the corona radiata; its fibers radiate in a fan-like manner and pass into the occipital and temporal lobes lateral to the posterior and inferior cornua.

Uncinate fasciculus

The uncinate fasciculus is a white matter association tract in the human brain that connects parts of the limbic system such as the temporal pole, anterior parahippocampus, and amygdala in the temporal lobe with inferior portions of the frontal lobe such as the orbitofrontal cortex. Its function is unknown though it is affected in several psychiatric conditions. It is one of the last white matter tracts to mature in the human brain.

Superior longitudinal fasciculus Association fiber tract of the brain

The superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) is an association fiber tract in the brain that is composed of three separate components. It is present in both hemispheres and can be found lateral to the centrum semiovale and connects the frontal, occipital, parietal, and temporal lobes. These bundles of axon tracts pass from the frontal lobe through the operculum to the posterior end of the lateral sulcus where they either radiate to and synapse on neurons in the occipital lobe or turn downward and forward around the putamen and then radiate to and synapse on neurons in anterior portions of the temporal lobe.

Pure alexia, also known as agnosic alexia or alexia without agraphia or pure word blindness, is one form of alexia which makes up "the peripheral dyslexia" group. Individuals who have pure alexia have severe reading problems while other language-related skills such as naming, oral repetition, auditory comprehension or writing are typically intact.

Superior temporal sulcus Part of the brains temporal lobe

The superior temporal sulcus (STS) is the sulcus separating the superior temporal gyrus from the middle temporal gyrus in the temporal lobe of the brain. A sulcus is a deep groove that curves into the largest part of the brain, the cerebrum, and a gyrus is the a ridge that curves outward of the cerebrum.

Phonagnosia is a type of agnosia, or loss of knowledge, that involves a disturbance in the recognition of familiar voices and the impairment of voice discrimination abilities in which the affected individual does not suffer from comprehension deficits. Phonagnosia is an auditory agnosia, an acquired auditory processing disorder resulting from brain damage, other auditory agnosias include cortical deafness and auditory verbal agnosia also known as pure word deafness.

Disconnection syndrome

Disconnection syndrome is a general term for a collection of neurological symptoms caused -- via lesions to associational or commissural nerve fibres -- by damage to the white matter axons of communication pathways in the cerebrum, independent of any lesions to the cortex. The behavioral effects of such disconnections are relatively predictable in adults. Disconnection syndromes usually reflect circumstances where regions A and B still have their functional specializations except in domains that depend on the interconnections between the two regions.

The parieto-frontal integration theory (P-FIT) considers intelligence to relate to how well different brain regions integrate to form intelligent behaviors. The theory proposes that large scale brain networks connect brain regions, including regions within frontal, parietal, temporal, and cingulate cortices, underlie the biological basis of human intelligence. These regions, which overlap significantly with the task-positive network, allow the brain to communicate and exchange information efficiently with one another. Support for this theory is primarily based on neuroimaging evidence, with support from lesion studies. The P-FIT is influential in that it explains the majority of current neuroimaging findings, as well as increasing empirical support for cognition being the result of large-scale brain networks, rather than numerous domain-specific processes or modules. A 2010 review of the neuroscience of intelligence described P-FIT as "the best available answer to the question of where in the brain intelligence resides".

References

  1. ↑ Dejerine, J., and Dejerine-Klumpke, A. (1895). Anatomie des centres nerveux. Rueff.
  2. ↑ Polyak, S., 1957. The vertebrate visual system. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
  3. ↑ Putnam, T.J., 1926. Studies on the central visual connections. Arch Neurol Psychiatr; 16: 566±96
  4. ↑ Tusa, R.J., Ungerleider, L.G., 1985. The inferior longitudinal fasciculus: a reexamination in humans and monkeys. Ann Neurol; 18: 583-91.
  5. ↑ Mori, S., Kaufmann, W.E., Davatzikos, C., Stieltjes, B., Amodei, L., Fredericksen, K., Pearlson, G.D., Melhem, E.R., Solaiyappan, M., Raymond, G.V., Moser, H.W., van Zijl, P.C. 2002. Imaging cortical association tracts in the human brain using diffusion-tensor-based axonal tracking. MagnResonMed.;47(2):215-23
  6. ↑ Catani, M., Howard, R.J., Pajevic, S., Jones, D.K. 2002. Virtual in vivo interactive dissection of white matter fasciculi in the human brain. Neuroimage;17(1):77-94
  7. ↑ Catani, M., Jones, D.K., Donato, R., Ffytche, D.H., 2003. Occipito-temporal connections in the human brain. Brain; 126: 2093-107.
  8. ↑ Wakana, S., Caprihan, A., Panzenboeck, M.M., Fallon, J.H., Perry, M., Gollub, R.L., Hua, K., Zhang, J., Jiang, H., Dubey, P., Blitz, A., van Zijl, P., Mori, S. 2007. Reproducibility of quantitative tractography methods applied to cerebral white matter. Neuroimage; 1;36(3):630-44.
  9. ↑ Catani, M., Thiebaut de Schotten, M., 2008. A diffusion tensor imaging tractography atlas for virtual in vivo dissections. Cortex.;44(8):1105-32.
  10. ↑ Fernández-Miranda, J.C., Rhoton, A.L., Álvarez-Linera, J., Kakizawa, Y., Choi, C., De Oliveira, E., 2008. Three Dimensional Microsurgical and Tractographic anatomy of the white matter of the Human Brain. Neurosurgery 62[SHC Suppl 3]: SHC-989-SHC-1027.
  11. ↑ De Benedictis, A., Duffau, H., Paradiso, B., Grandi, E., Balbi, S., Granieri, E., Colarusso, E., Chioffi, F., Marras, C.E., Sarubbo, S., 2014. Anatomo-functional study of the temporo-parieto-occipital region: dissection, tractographic and brain mapping evidence from a neurosurgical perspective. J Anat;225(2):132-51
  12. ↑ Latini, F. (2015). New insights in the limbic modulation of visual inputs: the role of the inferior longitudinal fasciculus and the Li-Am bundle. Neurosurgical Review 38, 179– 190
  13. 1 2 3 Latini, F., Mårtensson, J., Larsson, E.-M., Fredrikson, M., Åhs, F., Hjortberg, M., et al. (2017). Segmentation of the inferior longitudinal fasciculus in the human brain: A white matter dissection and diffusion tensor tractography study. Brain Research
  14. ↑ Agrawal, A., Kapfhammer, J.P., Kress, A., Wichers, H., Deep, A., Feindel, W., Sonntag, V.K., Spetzler, R.F., Preul, M.C., 2011. Josef Klingler’s models of white matter tracts: influences on neuroanatomy, neurosurgery, and neuroimaging. Neuro- surgery 69, 238–252
  15. 1 2 Panesar SS, Yeh FC, Jacquesson T, Hula W, Fernandez-Miranda JC. A Quantitative Tractography Study Into the Connectivity, Segmentation and Laterality of the Human Inferior Longitudinal Fasciculus.Front Neuroanat. 2018 Jun 5;12:47. doi: 10.3389/fnana.2018.00047
  16. ↑ Wang, Yin; Metoki, Athanasia; Smith, David; Medaglia, John D.; Zang, Yinyin; Benear, Susan; Popal, Haroon; Lin, Ying; Olson, Ingrid R. (2020). "Multimodal mapping of the face connectome". Nature Human Behavior. 4 (4): 397–411. doi:10.1038/s41562-019-0811-3. PMC   7167350 . PMID   31988441.
  17. ↑ Jankowiak, J., Albert, M.L., 1994. Lesion localization in visual agnosia. In: Kertesz A, editor. Localization and neuroimaging in neuropsychology. San Diego: Academic Press; p. 429±71
  18. ↑ Benson, D.F., Segarra, J., Albert, M.L., 1974. Visual agnosia-prosopagnosia. A clinicopathologic correlation. Arch Neurol; 30: 307-10.
  19. ↑ Meadows, J.C., 1974. The anatomical basis of prosopagnosia. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry; 37: 489-501
  20. ↑ Ross, E.D., 1980. Sensory-specific and fractional disorders of recent memory in man. I. Isolated loss of visual recent memory. Arch Neurol; 37: 193±200
  21. ↑ Bauer, R.M., 1982. Visual hypoemotionality as a symptom of visual±limbic disconnection in man. Arch Neurol; 39: 702-8.
  22. ↑ Sierra, M., Lopera, F., Lambert, M.V., Phillips, M.L., David, A.S., 2002. Separating depersonalisation and derealisation: the relevance of the `lesion method'. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry; 72: 530-2.
  23. ↑ Geschwind, N., 1965a .Disconnexion syndromes in animals and man. Part I. Brain; 88: 237±94
  24. ↑ Girkin, C.A., Miller, N.R., 2001. Central disorders of vision in humans. Surv Ophthalmol; 45: 379±405
  25. ↑ Ashtari, M., Cottone, J., Ardekani, B.A., Cervellione, K., Szeszko, P.R., Wu, J., Chen, S., Kumra, S., 2007. Disruption of white matter integrity in the inferior longitudinal fasciculus in adolescents with schizophrenia as revealed by fiber tractography. Archives of General Psychiatry, 64(11): 1270e1280
  26. ↑ Epelbaum, S., Pinel, P., Gaillard, R., Delmaire, C., Perrin, M., Dupont, S., Dehaene, S., Cohen, L., 2008. Pure alexia as a disconnection syndrome: new diffusion imaging evidence for an old concept. Cortex. Sep;44(8):962-74. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2008.05.003
  27. ↑ Koldewyn, K., Yendiki, A., Weigelt, S., Gweon, H., Julian, J., Richardson, H., Malloy, C., Saxe, R., Fischl, B., Kanwisher, N., 2014. Differences in the right inferior longitudinal fasciculus but no general disruption of white matter tracts in children with autism spectrum disorder. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. Feb 4;111(5):1981-6. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1324037111
  28. ↑ Herbet G, Zemmoura I, Duffau H. Functional Anatomy of the Inferior Longitudinal Fasciculus: From Historical Reports to Current Hypotheses. Front Neuroanat. 2018 Sep 19;12:77. doi: 10.3389/fnana.2018.00077
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