Sustratos neuroanatómicos y funcionales del córtex prefrontal medial

Abstract

This article presents how a revision that was done sought out to integrate the updated knowledge that we have about neuroanatomical and morphological substrates of the functional circuits that the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) establishes with other brain structures. Several investigations have described the emergent and/or convergent projections of the mPFC, mainly taking rodents as a study model; using the technique of neuronal marker as the main technique of inquiry to reveal such projections, followed by works that propose electrophysiography to reveal the cerebral connectivity. Thus, the interaction of the mPFC with other brain structures has been described, among which the hippocampus, the periaqueductal gray matter, the hypothalamus, the nucleus accumbens, the cerebral amygdala, the ventral tegmental area, the dorsal nucleus of Rafe and the lateral habenula of the epithalamus, among others. These investigations have gone beyond the physical component of brain connectivity, extrapolating and enabling the functional understanding of the anatomical pathways established between the different regions interrelated with the mPFC, revealing the cognitive-behavioral activity of the study subjects.