Cingulum

The cingulum (a.k.a. the cingulate bundle), is a prominent white-matter fibre system situated in the deep part of the cingulate gyrus, forming its white-matter core. It extends longitudinally above and around the corpus callosum and continues posteriorly towards the retrosplenial and parahippocampal regions of the medial temporal lobe.

The cingulum is not a single uninterrupted fibre tract. It contains short and long fibres that enter and leave the bundle at different points along its course, forming an extensive network connecting cortical and subcortical regions. Its connections involve the cingulate cortex, prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortices, parietal cortex, parahippocampal region and hippocampus, amygdala, insula and thalamic nuclei. Short cortical fibres, including U-fibres, provide more local connections between medial frontal, parietal and temporal regions, whereas longer fibres contribute to more widely distributed cortical networks.

Through these extensive connections, the cingulum acts as an important integrative pathway involved in memory, cognition, emotion, attention and spatial processing, reward, and visceromotor and endocrine regulation.