Dissecting the uncinate fasciculus: disorders, controversies and a hypothesis.
Open accessAbstract
The uncinate fasciculus is a bidirectional, long-range white matter tract that connects lateral orbitofrontal cortex and Brodmann area 10 with the anterior temporal lobes. Although abnormalities in the uncinate fasciculus have been associated with several psychiatric disorders and previous studies suggest it plays a putative role in episodic memory, language and social emotional processing, its exact function is not well understood. In this review we summarize what is currently known about the anatomy of the uncinate, we review its role in psychiatric and neurological illnesses, and we evaluate evidence related to its putative functions. We propose that an overarching role of the uncinate fasciculus is to allow temporal lobe-based mnemonic associations (e.g. an individual's name + face + voice) to modify behaviour through interactions with the lateral orbitofrontal cortex, which provides valence-based biasing of decisions. The bidirectionality of the uncinate fasciculus information flow allows orbital frontal cortex-based reward and punishment history to rapidly modulate temporal lobe-based mnemonic representations. According to this view, disruption of the uncinate may cause problems in the expression of memory to guide decisions and in the acquisition of certain types of learning and memory. Moreover, uncinate perturbation should cause problems that extend beyond memory to include social-emotional problems owing to people and objects being stripped of personal value and emo…
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There has been no detailed study of the UF terminations using tractography.
“There has been no detailed study of the UF terminations using tractography (Von Der Heide et al., 2013).”
From Cortical Terminations of the Inferior Fronto-Occipital and Uncinate Fasciculi: Anatomical Stem-Based Virtual Dissection (2016) · cites this paper as Von Der Heide et al., 2013
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- Authors
- Von Der Heide, R. J., Skipper, L. M., Klobusicky, E., & Olson, I. R.
- Affiliations
- Temple University (US)
- ORCID
- Olson, Ingrid R.
- Venue
- Brain
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2013-05-06
- Volume
- 136
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1692-1707
- ISSN
- 0006-8950 (ISSN-L)
- 1460-2156
- PMC
- PMC3673595
- OpenAlex
- W2084335923
- Cited by
- 829
- References
- 18
- Citations by year
- 2026: 53 · 2025: 72 · 2024: 77 · 2023: 52 · 2022: 71 · 2021: 71 · 2020: 82 · 2019: 69 · 2018: 64 · 2017: 63 · 2016: 66 · 2015: 53 · 2014: 24 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 7.15
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- europepmc.org
- Locations
- Brain (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH091113)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and Applications
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Keywords
- uncinate fasciculus, white matter tracts, orbitofrontal cortex, Brodmann area 10, anterior temporal lobe, episodic memory, memory-guided decision-making, social-emotional processing, mental illness, neurological disorders, functional hypothesis
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Mental Disorders, Humans, Nerve Fibers, Myelinated, Nerve Net, Neural Pathways, Temporal Lobe
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