Cristina Granziera1, Reto Meuli2, Gunnar Krueger3
1CHUV, Dpt of Neurology , Lausanne, VD, Switzerland; 2CHUV, Dpt of Radiology, Lausanne, VD, Switzerland; 3Siemens Switzerland SA - CIBM, Advanced Clinical Imaging Technology, Switzerland
The Papez circuit is an important anatomical substrate of memory and emotion. To date, however, no attempt has been done to show the structural basis of this circuit in-vivo, probably due to its convoluted shape and complex nature. In this investigation, we disentangled the anatomical structure of the Papez Circuit in humans using high-angular resolution diffusion spectrum imaging tractography. In six subjects, we could consistently map the hippocampus-mamillary body pathway, the pathway connecting the lateral subiculum to the cingulated cortex and the tract connecting the mamillary body to the thalamus, where higher level integration of cognition is performed.