Caudate Nucleus Function, Location, Right and Left Caudate Nucleus

The corpus striatum, a part of the basal ganglia in the human brain, includes the caudate nucleus as one of its structural components.  Despite the caudate nucleus's long-standing association with motor processes due to its function in Parkinson's disease, it also plays significant roles in a number of other non-motor functions, including procedural learning, cognitive processing, and inhibitory regulation of action. The caudate is also a part of the brain's reward system and works as a part of the cortico-basal ganglia-thalamic loop.

Function

Caudate nucleus aids in maintaining high-level functioning, such as:

• Planning a move
• understanding
• Remembrance
• Reward
• Determination
• Sentiments
• Exchanges of feelings

Deep within the brain are a collection of neuron cell bodies called the basal ganglia. These cell bodies are involved in behavior, feelings, and movement. This brain circuit gets data from the cerebral cortex, a layer of grey matter in the outer brain that is connected to higher cognitive processes including learning and information processing. Most of the information that the basal ganglia transmit is sent to the thalamus, which then transmits it to the cerebral cortex.

Location

The caudate nucleus is positioned in the region of the brain that is medial to the lateral ventricles, with its head oriented medially to the frontal horn and its body placed medially to the body of the lateral ventricle. The tail of the caudate nucleus ends exactly above the ventricle's temporal horn. The anterior crus of the internal capsule serves as the ligament that holds it together laterally.

Right and Left Caudate Nucleus

According to research, volumetric shifts in the caudate nucleus have been connected to a wide variety of neurological and psychiatric conditions. Age, genetics, and environmental exposures all cause normal, non-pathological changes in the caudate nucleus. Healthy adults normally show no gender variations in the caudate nucleus volumes.

The caudate nucleus of multilingual speakers is larger than that of monolingual speakers, and the left caudate nucleus alters morphologically with multilingual proficiency. There is a correlation between the size of the caudate nucleus and one's level of intelligence. Larger caudate nucleus sizes are also associated with a diet rich in nutrients. In the presence of prenatal alcohol exposure, the left caudate nucleus volume is greater than the right caudate nucleus volume.

In one study, there was an association between memory competition performance and the size of the right caudate nucleus, and the strength of its connections with the hippocampus.

Infarcts in the left caudate nucleus are related to a variety of symptoms, including the following:

• Cognitive impairment,
• Motor deficiencies,
• Various issues with speech.

Infarcts in the right caudate nucleus are connected with the following:

• Abulia,
• Confusion
• Paresis

Infarctions of both caudate nuclei can cause

• Paresis
• Akinesia
• Disorientation