The bilateral Superior Corona Radiata (left hemisphere, “Superior corona radiata L”) is a major subcortical white matter region composed of ascending and descending projection fibers that fan out between the cerebral cortex and deeper structures. It contains corticospinal, corticobulbar, and thalamocortical fibers, serving as a conduit for motor, sensory, and associative information between the cerebral cortex and the internal capsule, thalamus, and brainstem. Anatomically, it lies superior to the lateral ventricles and the body of the internal capsule, blending inferiorly with the internal capsule and superiorly with cortical white matter, particularly in frontal and parietal regions. Although there is no dedicated Wikipedia article specifically for the “superior corona radiata,” it forms part of the larger Corona radiata white matter system.
The bilateral superior corona radiata, as defined by the JHU ICBM 2 mm atlas, has been repeatedly implicated in imaging–genetics and GWAS work focused on white matter microstructure, particularly through diffusion MRI metrics such as fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD), which show moderate heritability and polygenic influences. Large-scale consortia (e.g., ENIGMA, UK Biobank) have reported associations between FA/MD in this region or adjacent long association fibers and loci near genes involved in axon guidance, myelination, and oligodendrocyte function (such as variants near or within CNTNAP2, NTRK1/2, MAG, and other neurodevelopmental and myelin-related genes), though individual signals often differ across studies and rarely reach region-specific consensus. Polygenic risk scores for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression, and autism spectrum disorder have been associated with altered white matter integrity in superior corona radiata tracts, suggesting shared genetic architectures linking neurodevelopmental and psychiatric risk variants to disruptions in supratentorial projection and association fibers. Additionally, GWAS of cognitive performance, educational attainment, and general intelligence have identified polygenic influences on white matter integrity that include the superior corona radiata among affected tracts, indicating that many common variants affecting neurodevelopment, synaptic function, and myelination are indirectly associated with microstructural properties of this region, although precise, reproducible, region-specific genetic associations remain limited and are typically reported at the level of distributed white matter networks rather than the superior corona radiata alone.
Overview generated by GPT-4o (2026).
Region ID: 26
Hemisphere: bilateral
Atlas: JHU ICBM labels 2mm
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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