J+Caudate+nucleus

The **caudate nucleus** is a located within the  of the  of many animal species. The caudate nucleus is an important part of the brain's learning and memory system. The caudate nuclei are located near the center of the brain, sitting astride the. There is a caudate nucleus within each of the brain. Individually, they resemble a C-shape structure with a wider "head" (//caput// in Latin) at the front, tapering to a "body" (//corpus//) and a "tail" (//cauda//). Sometimes a part of the caudate nucleus is referred to as the "knee" (//genu//).[|[1]] The head and body of the caudate nucleus form part of the floor of the anterior horn of the. After the body travels briefly towards the back of the head, the tail curves back toward the anterior, forming the roof of the inferior horn of the lateral ventricle. This means that a coronal (on the same plane as the ) section that cuts through the tail will also cross the body and head of the caudate nucleus. The caudate nucleus is related anatomically to a number of other structures. It is separated from the (made up of the  and the ) by the anterior limb of the. Together the caudate and putamen form the dorsal. The caudate nucleus is highly innervated by. These neurons originate mainly from the (VTA) and the  (SNc). There are also additional inputs from various.

Learning and memory
Historically, the basal ganglia as a whole have been implicated in higher-order motor control.[|[2]] The caudate nucleus was initially thought to primarily be involved with control of voluntary movement. More recently, it has been demonstrated that the caudate is highly involved in learning and memory,[|[3]] particularly regarding feedback processing.[|[4]] In general, it has been demonstrated that neural activity will be present within the caudate while an individual is receiving feedback. People with appear to have slight increases in the sizes of the caudate nucleus as well as of the  of the cortex.[|[5]]

Language comprehension
The left caudate in particular has been suggested to have a relationship with the that governs the comprehension and articulation of words as they are switched between languages.[|[6]][|[7]]

Threshold control
The brain contains large collections of neurons reciprocally connected by, thus forming large network of elements with. It is difficult to see how such a system can operate without some mechanism to prevent explosive activation. There is some indirect evidence[|[8]] that the caudate may perform this regulatory role by measuring the general activity of and controlling the.

Role in obsessive compulsive disorder
It has been theorized that the caudate nucleus may be dysfunctional in persons with (OCD), in that it may perhaps be unable to properly regulate the transmission of information regarding worrying events or ideas between the  and the. A study with  found that the right caudate nucleus had the largest change in glucose metabolism after patients had been treated with .[|[9]] Recent  of  studies comparing people with OCD and healthy controls have found people with OCD to have increased  volumes in bilateral, extending to the caudate nuclei, while decreased grey matter volumes in bilateral dorsal / gyri.[|[10]][|[11]] These findings contrast with those in people with other anxiety disorders, who evince decreased (rather than increased)  volumes in bilateral  / caudate nuclei, while also decreased grey matter volumes in bilateral dorsal / gyri.[|[11]]