Subiculum
Most inferior part of the hippocampal formation
title: "Subiculum" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["hippocampus-(brain)"] description: "Most inferior part of the hippocampal formation" topic_path: "general/hippocampus-brain" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subiculum" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Most inferior part of the hippocampal formation ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox brain"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | Subiculum |
| Image | Hippocampus (brain).jpg |
| Caption | Subiculum labeled at center left (coronal brain slice). |
| Image2 | CA1_to_subiculum4.jpg |
| Caption2 | CA1 transition to subiculum Artist Don Cooper and Leah Leverich |
| IsPartOf | Temporal lobe |
| Artery | Posterior cerebral |
| Anterior choroidal | |
| :: |
| Name = Subiculum | Latin = | Image = Hippocampus (brain).jpg | Caption = Subiculum labeled at center left (coronal brain slice). | Image2 = CA1_to_subiculum4.jpg | Caption2 = CA1 transition to subiculum Artist Don Cooper and Leah Leverich | IsPartOf = Temporal lobe | Components = | Artery = Posterior cerebral Anterior choroidal | Vein = | Acronym = The subiculum (Latin for "support") also known as the subicular complex, or subicular cortex, is the most inferior component of the hippocampal formation. It lies between the entorhinal cortex and the CA1 hippocampal subfield.
The subicular complex comprises a set of four related structures including the prosubiculum, presubiculum, postsubiculum and parasubiculum.
Name
The subiculum got its name from Karl Friedrich Burdach in his three-volume work Vom Bau und Leben des Gehirns (Vol. 2, §199). He originally named it subiculum cornu ammonis and so associated it with the rest of the hippocampal subfields.
Structure
The subicular complex receives input from CA1 and entorhinal cortical layer III pyramidal neurons and is the main output of the hippocampus proper. The pyramidal neurons send projections to the nucleus accumbens, septal nuclei, prefrontal cortex, lateral hypothalamus, nucleus reuniens, mammillary nuclei, entorhinal cortex and amygdala.
The pyramidal neurons in the subiculum exhibit transitions between two modes of action potential output: bursting and single spiking. The transitions between these two modes is thought to be important for routing information out of the hippocampus.
Four component areas have been described: parasubiculum (adjacent to the parahippocampal gyrus), presubiculum, postsubiculum, and prosubiculum.
Parasubiculum
The parasubiculum contains grid cells, which are neurons responsive to movements in particular directions over particular distances.
Presubiculum
The presubiculum is part of the posterior cortex corresponding to Brodmann area 27, and forms part of the cortical input to the entorhinal-hippocampal spatial/memory system.
Postsubiculum
The dorsal part of the presubiculum is more commonly known as the postsubiculum and is of interest because it contains head direction cells, which are responsive to the facing direction of the head.
Prosubiculum
Prosubiculum is a term often used in reference to monkey anatomy but rarely in rodents, referring to a region located between the CA1 region of the hippocampus and the subiculum, and distinguished by higher cell density and smaller cell sizes.
Function
It is believed to play a role in some cases of human epilepsy.
It has also been implicated in working memory and drug addiction.
It has been suggested that the dorsal subiculum is involved in spatial relations, and the ventral subiculum regulates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis.
Clinical significance
Potential role in Alzheimer's disease
Rat studies indicate that lesioning of the subiculum decreases the spread of amyloid-beta in rat models of Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's disease pathology is thought to have prion-like properties. The disease tends to spread in characteristic sequence from the entorhinal cortex through the subiculum.
Additional images
File:CajalHippocampus (modified).png|Basic circuit of the hippocampus
References
References
- Ding, Song-Lin. (2013-12-15). "Comparative anatomy of the prosubiculum, subiculum, presubiculum, postsubiculum, and parasubiculum in human, monkey, and rodent". The Journal of Comparative Neurology.
- [http://www.neurocloud.org/ Donald C. Cooper], Sungkwon Chung, Nelson Spruston, "[http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.0030175 Output-Mode Transitions Are Controlled by Prolonged Inactivation of Sodium Channels in Pyramidal Neurons of Subiculum]," ''[[PLoS Biology]]'', 3(6):e175, 2005 June.
- "Allen Reference Atlases :: Atlas Viewer".
- (2010-08-01). "Grid cells in pre- and parasubiculum". Nature Neuroscience.
- (1977-03-01). "An autoradiographic study of the organization of the efferent connections of the hippocampal formation in the rat". The Journal of Comparative Neurology.
- (1990-02-01). "Head-direction cells recorded from the postsubiculum in freely moving rats. I. Description and quantitative analysis". The Journal of Neuroscience.
- (June 2008). "Loss of GABAergic neurons in the subiculum and its functional implications in temporal lobe epilepsy". Brain.
- Stafstrom CE. (2005). "The role of the subiculum in epilepsy and epileptogenesis". Epilepsy Curr.
- (June 2004). "Electrolytic lesions of the ventral subiculum weakly alter spatial memory but potentiate amphetamine-induced locomotion". Behav. Brain Res..
- (July 2008). "The dorsal subiculum mediates the acquisition of conditioned reinstatement of cocaine-seeking". Neuropsychopharmacology.
- O'Mara S. (September 2005). "The subiculum: what it does, what it might do, and what neuroanatomy has yet to tell us". J. Anat..
- George, Sonia. (2014). "Lesion of the subiculum reduces the spread of amyloid beta pathology to interconnected brain regions in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease". Acta Neuropathologica Communications.
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