Nerve pathway · one in each half of the brain
Cingulum
Also called Cingulum, Cingulum bundle
A belt of fibers looping around the brain's middle, linking emotion, focus, and memory.
The cingulum is a long bundle of fibers running inside the cingulate cortex, the curved strip that wraps around the corpus callosum. It loops from the front of the brain, over the top, and down into the temporal lobe near the memory centers. It links areas for attention, emotion, pain, and memory, helping them work as one team.
Where it is
Deep on the inner surface of each half of the brain, just above the corpus callosum. It arches from behind the forehead, over the top, around the back, and down into the inner part of the temporal lobe.
What it does
Linking memory areas
Its back and lower parts connect to the parahippocampal gyrus and entorhinal cortex, the gateways to the hippocampus.
Emotion and pain
Its front part is thought to link areas that give pain its unpleasant, urgent feeling.
Focus and control
It is thought to help the front of the brain notice mistakes and stay focused on a goal.
The wandering mind
It is thought to link key parts of the brain's "default mode network", which is active when your mind wanders or you think about yourself.
Think of it as a beltway around the city center, with many on-ramps and off-ramps where local traffic joins and leaves.
Works with
- Cingulate cortexThe cingulum runs inside the white matter of the cingulate cortex along its whole length.
- Corpus callosumIt arches just above the corpus callosum, following its curve.
- Anterior nucleus of the thalamusFibers from this thalamus nucleus join the cingulum on their way to the cingulate cortex, part of a classic memory loop called the Papez circuit.
- PrecuneusIt is thought to link this inner parietal area with the front of the brain, two central hubs of the wandering-mind network.
- Parahippocampal gyrusIts lower end dives into this area, bringing information toward the hippocampus.
- Entorhinal cortexIt helps connect this main gateway to the hippocampus with the rest of the brain.
When it goes wrong
A last-resort surgery
In rare, severe cases of pain that nothing else helps, surgeons have performed a cingulotomy, an operation that cuts off part of the cingulate region from the rest of the brain.
For learning only, not medical advice. If you have a health concern, talk to a doctor.
Where the name comes from
From the Latin cingulum, "belt" or "girdle", because it wraps around the middle of the brain like a belt.
Learn it in a lesson
- Wiring and fluidWhite matter cables and the ventricles. A short guided lesson in 3D.
Quick quiz
3 questions. Your answers are saved and come back in your daily review.
Which of these is a job of the cingulum?
Show the answer
Linking memory areas. Its back and lower parts connect to the parahippocampal gyrus and entorhinal cortex, the gateways to the hippocampus.
Linking memory areas. Its back and lower parts connect to the parahippocampal gyrus and entorhinal cortex, the gateways to the hippocampus.
The cingulum is part of which larger structure?
Show the answer
White matter pathways. It belongs to the white matter pathways.
White matter pathways. It belongs to the white matter pathways.
Which part fits this description? "Like a beltway around the city center, with many on-ramps and off-ramps where local traffic joins and leaves."
Show the answer
Cingulum. It is the cingulum. A belt of fibers looping around the brain's middle, linking emotion, focus, and memory.
Cingulum. It is the cingulum. A belt of fibers looping around the brain's middle, linking emotion, focus, and memory.
These parts now come back in your daily review, just before you would forget them.
Practice it and its neighbors in 3DSources
- Papez circuit, Radiopaedia
- 9.4 Pain Relief, OpenStax, Introduction to Behavioral Neuroscience
- 1.4 The Brain: Structure and Function, OpenStax, Introduction to Behavioral Neuroscience
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Explore the cingulum in 3D
Turn it around, zoom inside and see how it connects to the rest of the brain, then test yourself with quick quizzes.
Open it in 3D