Extreme capsule is a bottleneck for ventral pathway

Abstract

As neuroscience literature suggests, extreme capsule is considered a whiter matter tract. Nevertheless, it is not clear whether extreme capsule itself is an association fiber pathway or only a bottleneck for other association fibers to pass. Via our review, investigating anatomical position, connectivity and cognitive role of the bundles in extreme capsule, and by analyzing data from the dissection, it can be argued that extreme capsule is probably a bottleneck for the passage of uncinated fasciculus (UF) and inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFOF), and these fasciculi are responsible for the respective roles in language processing.

Keywords

• Extreme capsule
• Uncinated fasciculus
• Inferior occipito-frontal fasciculus
• Ventral pathway of language
• Bottleneck
• Diffusion tensor imaging