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| Brain: Preoptic area | ||
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| Preoptic area is 'PO', at left, in blue. | ||
| NeuroNames | hier-360 | |
| MeSH | Preoptic+area | |
The preoptic area is a region of the hypothalamus. According to the MeSH classification, it is considered part of the anterior hypothalamus.
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Functions
The preoptic area is responsible for thermoregulation and receives nervous stimulation from thermoreceptors in the skin, mucous membranes and hypothalamus itself.1
This area propagates stimuli to either the heat-losing or heat-promoting centres of the hypothalamus.
Nuclei
There are four nuclei in this region, according to Terminologia Anatomica:
- nucleus preopticus lateralis (lateral preoptic nucleus)
- nucleus preopticus medialis (medial preoptic nucleus)
- nucleus preopticus medianus (median preoptic nucleus)
- nucleus preopticus periventricularis (periventricular preoptic nucleus)
Medial preoptic nucleus
Medial preoptic nucleus releases gonadotropin-releasing hormone.
Median preoptic nucleus
The median preoptic nucleus generates thirst. Drinking decreases noradrenaline release in the median preoptic nucleus2
Aging
Studies in female mice have shown that estrogen receptor-alpha declines in the pre-optic hypothalamus as they grow old. The female mice that were given a calorically restricted diet during the majority of their lives, maintained higher levels of ERα in the pre-optic hypothalamus than their non-calorically restricted counterparts. 3
References
- ^ Martin, John Harry (2003). Neuroanatomy: Text and Atlas. McGraw-Hill Professional.
- ^ Drinking decreases the noradrenaline release in the median preoptic area caused by hypovolemia in the rat Hiroko Miyakubo, Kazuo Yamamoto, Satoko Hatakenaka, Yasushi Hayashi and Junichi Tanaka
- ^ Yaghmaie F, Saeed O, Garan SA, Freitag W, Timiras PS, Sternberg H. (2005). "Caloric restriction reduces cell loss and maintains estrogen receptor-alpha immunoreactivity in the pre-optic hypothalamus of female B6D2F1 mice.". Neuro Endocrinol Lett. 26 (3): 197–203. PMID 15990721.
See also
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