Fornix
NervousOrgansHead
- What it is
- A paired arch of white matter that leaves the tail of each hippocampus, runs forward under the corpus callosum and plunges down as the columns of the fornix into the hypothalamus to end in the mammillary bodies.
- Function
- The main output pathway of the hippocampus, part of the Papez memory circuit.
- Size
- About 3.5 cm long; 3-4 mm thick
- Clinical note
- Damage to both fornices (e.g. during removal of a colloid cyst of the third ventricle) can cause lasting amnesia for new events.