Human Hypothalamus: Basic and Clinical Aspects, Part I

Part I. Nuclei of the human hypothalamus: cytoarchitecture, chem oarchitecture, functional neuroanatomy, topographic neuropathology.

1. Introduction. 1.1 Anatomical borders of the hypothalamus . 1.2 Strategic research and structure-function relationships. 1.3 The a utopsy and brain banking. 1.4 Confounding factors. 1.5 Parameters of neu ronal metabolic activity in postmortem tissue. 1.6 Fetal hypothalamic de velopment and adult markers of the human hypothalamic nuclei. 2. Nucleus basalis of Meynert (NBM) and diagonal band of Broca (DBB). 2.1 Anatomy. 2.2 Chemoarchitecture. 2.3 Alzheimer’s disease. 2.4 Neuronal loss vs. a trophy. 2.5 Neurotrophin receptors in the NBM. 2.6 Other disorders affec ting the NBM and DBB. 3. Islands of Calleja, insulae terminalis. 4. Supr achiasmatic nucleus (SCN) and pineal gland. 4.1 Circadian, seasonal, mon thly and circaseptan rhythms in the SCN. 4.2 SCN development, birth and circadian rhythms. 4.3 Circadian and circannual rhythms in aging and Alz heimer’s disease. 4.4 The SCN in relation to sex, reproduction and sexua l orientation. 4.5 Melatonin and its receptors. 5. Sexually dimorphic nu