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Towards a mechanistic understanding of the human subcortex

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 18, pages 57–65 (2017)Cite this article

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Abstract

The human subcortex is a densely populated part of the brain, of which only 7% of the individual structures are depicted in standard MRI atlases. In vivo MRI of the subcortex is challenging owing to its anatomical complexity and its deep location in the brain. The technical advances that are needed to reliably uncover this 'terra incognita' call for an interdisciplinary human neuroanatomical approach. We discuss the emerging methods that could be used in such an approach and the incorporation of the data that are generated from these methods into model-based cognitive neuroscience frameworks.

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Figure 1: Visualization of the human subcortex.
Figure 2: A functional theory on cortico–basal ganglia–thalamo–cortical network.
Figure 3: Multilevel data acquisition pipeline.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank A. Schäfer, R. Trampel and W. van der Zwaag for helpful discussion about this manuscript and R. Mulray who assisted in proofreading of the manuscript. The authors' research was supported by an ERC grant from the European Research Council (B.U.F.), a Vidi grant from the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (B.U.F.), a grant by the dutch Hersenstichting (B.U.F. and A.A.), and the Dutch Parkinson Funds (B.U.F. and A.A.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Amsterdam Brain and Cognition Centre, University of Amsterdam, Nieuwe Achtergracht 129B, 1018 WT Amsterdam, The Netherlands; and at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, an Institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Meibergdreef 47, 1105 BA Amsterdam, The Netherlands.,

    Birte U. Forstmann, Gilles de Hollander, Leendert van Maanen, Anneke Alkemade & Max C. Keuken

  2. and at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, an Institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Meibergdreef 47, 1105 BA Amsterdam, The Netherlands.,

    Birte U. Forstmann, Gilles de Hollander, Leendert van Maanen, Anneke Alkemade & Max C. Keuken

  3. Psychological Methods Department, University of Amsterdam, Nieuwe Achtergracht 129B, 1018 WT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Leendert van Maanen

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Correspondence to Birte U. Forstmann.

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Forstmann, B., de Hollander, G., van Maanen, L. et al. Towards a mechanistic understanding of the human subcortex. Nat Rev Neurosci 18, 57–65 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2016.163

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