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Medical Term:

locus caeruleus

Definition

a shallow depression, of a blue color in the fresh brain, lying laterally in the most rostral portion of the rhomboidal fossa near the cerebral aqueduct; it lies near the lateral wall of the fourth ventricle and consists of about 20,000 melanin-pigmented neuronal cell bodies the norepinephrine-containing axons of which have a remarkably wide distribution in the cerebellum as well as in the hypothalamus and cerebral cortex.

Synonym(s): locus cinereus, locus ferrugineus, substantia ferruginea

© Copyright 2017 Wolters Kluwer. All Rights Reserved. Review Date: Sep 19, 2016.

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