The bilateral Left Cerebrum.Sub-lobar.Lentiform Nucleus.Gray Matter.Medial Globus Pallidus corresponds to the medial segment of the globus pallidus, a principal output nucleus of the basal ganglia located within the lentiform nucleus deep in the sub-lobar region of the cerebral hemispheres. Composed predominantly of GABAergic projection neurons, the medial globus pallidus receives inhibitory inputs from the striatum and excitatory inputs from the subthalamic nucleus, integrating these signals to modulate thalamocortical activity via its efferent projections to motor-related thalamic nuclei and brainstem structures. This region plays a central role in the regulation of voluntary movement, muscle tone, and motor learning, and is critically involved in pathophysiological mechanisms underlying movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and dystonia. There is no direct link for the “Medial Globus Pallidus” subregion; a related structure is the Globus Pallidus.
The medial globus pallidus, part of the lentiform nucleus within sub-lobar gray matter of the left cerebrum, has been implicated in genetic studies primarily through its role in basal ganglia circuitry underlying movement, motivation, and cognitive control; while GWAS rarely target this precise Talairach-defined subregion, multiple disorders with strong genetic components consistently involve the globus pallidus broadly. Monogenic conditions such as Huntington’s disease (HTT expansions), Wilson disease (ATP7B), neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation (e.g., PANK2, PLA2G6, C19orf12), and some dystonias (e.g., TOR1A, THAP1) show structural and functional abnormalities in the globus pallidus on neuroimaging. Large-scale GWAS of Parkinson’s disease have identified risk loci (e.g., LRRK2, SNCA, GBA, MAPT) influencing basal ganglia networks that include the pallidum, while imaging genetics studies link common variants in dopaminergic and glutamatergic genes (e.g., DRD2, COMT, GRIN2B) to pallidal volume or activity changes in tasks involving reward and inhibitory control. Polygenic risk for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression has been associated with altered pallidal morphology or connectivity in large MRI–GWAS consortia such as ENIGMA, though effects are distributed across basal ganglia structures rather than uniquely localized to the medial globus pallidus. Additionally, GWAS of brain structure and subcortical volumes (e.g., from UK Biobank and ENIGMA) have identified multiple loci influencing pallidum volume—often involving neurodevelopmental and synaptic genes—supporting a heritable basis for individual differences in this region that may contribute to vulnerability across movement and psychiatric disorders.
Overview generated by GPT-4o (2026).
Region ID: 456
Hemisphere: bilateral
Atlas: Talairach 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
This resource is licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal (Public Domain).