The bilateral anterior corona radiata is a major white matter tract composed of projection fibers that fan out between the internal capsule and the cerebral cortex, predominantly within the frontal lobes. It contains ascending and descending fibers that connect thalamic and subcortical structures with prefrontal and premotor cortical regions, and is critical for integrating motor planning, executive function, attention, and higher-order cognitive processes. The anterior corona radiata also participates in fronto-striatal and fronto-thalamic circuits and is frequently analyzed in diffusion tensor imaging studies due to its involvement in neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. There is no direct Wikipedia article for the anterior corona radiata; a related structure is the Corona radiata (brain).
The bilateral anterior corona radiata, as defined in the JHU ICBM labels 1 mm atlas, has been implicated in multiple neuroimaging genetics studies that examine white matter microstructure via diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and link it to common genetic variants and neuropsychiatric traits. GWAS of fractional anisotropy and other DTI metrics have identified associations in this region with variants in genes involved in myelination and axonal development (e.g., MAG, CNTN4, and other cell-adhesion and oligodendrocyte-related genes), though specific loci are often shared across major tracts rather than unique to the anterior corona radiata. Polygenic scores for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder have been associated with altered white matter integrity in the anterior corona radiata, reflecting its role in fronto-subcortical and fronto-limbic circuitry. Genetic risk for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder has also been linked to microstructural changes in anterior corona radiata fibers in imaging-genetic analyses, supporting involvement of this tract in executive function and behavioral regulation. Beyond psychiatric conditions, variants associated with cognitive performance, educational attainment, and general intelligence show correlations with DTI measures in this region, and neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular genetic risk (e.g., APOE-related and small-vessel disease loci) have been connected to white matter vulnerability involving the anterior corona radiata. Overall, genetic influences on white matter structure, cognitive traits, and psychiatric liability converge on this tract, although findings are largely distributed across multiple white matter regions and are not specific to the anterior corona radiata alone.
Overview generated by GPT-4o (2026).
Region ID: 23
Hemisphere: bilateral
Atlas: JHU ICBM labels 1mm
Full Quality Version: Download MP4
Full Quality Version: Download MP4
Wali Sidiqyar*, Gaurav Rudravaram*, Elyssa M. McMaster, Trent M. Schwartz, Adam M. Saunders, Kurt G. Schilling, Bennett A. Landman "Introducing SPINS: A Shared Public Visualization Library of Neuroanatomical Structures." Medical Imaging with Deep Learning- short paper
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