Anatomy of the Sagittal Stratum Revisited

Abstract

  The sagittal stratum (SS) was originally defined and explored in white matter fiber dissection studies. The term represents the structures located close to and lateral to the trigon of the lateral ventricle and consisting of several layers of white matter bundles running in an anteroposterior (sagittal) direction. The SS includes the optic radiation, posterior ramus of the thalamic peduncle, anterior commissure, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, inferior longitudinal fasciculus, and middle longitudinal fasciculus. SS is assumed to play an essential role in various cognitive functions. It includes those, as mentioned above, major associations and commissural fiber bundles connecting broad areas of the cerebral cortex, such as visual, semantic, and language functions. In this article, we explore the anatomical characteristics of the SS through applying modern imaging technology, the generalizing q-sampling imaging tractography.