Circumventricular organs

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Scheme showing relations of the ventricles to the surface of the brain. Circumventricular organs primarily surround the third ventricle and fourth ventricle.

Circumventricular organs are sites in the neuroendocrine system that allow factors to 'circumvent' the Brain Blood Barrier. These organs secrete or are sites of action of different hormones, neurotransmitters and cytokines.

[edit] Examples

Circumventricular organs include the following:

• Pineal gland - secretes melatonin and is associated with circadian rhythms
• Subfornical organ- regulates body fluids
• Organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis- detects peptides
• Choroid plexus
• Area Postrema- the vomiting centre of the brain (makes sense that the brain can detect noxious substances in the blood and stimulate vomiting in order to rid the body of the substances)
• Median eminence- regulates the anterior pituitary through the release of neurohormones
• Subcommissural organ
• Posterior pituitary (neurohypophysis)- to detect levels of oxytocin and ADH in the blood

[edit] External links

• Dorlands/Elsevier o_06/12595518
• BrainInfo at the University of Washington ancil-263
• http://www.meddean.luc.edu/lumen/MedEd/Neuro/Circumventricular.html

This page uses content from the English-language version of Wikipedia. The original article was at Circumventricular organs. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Psychology Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.