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The historical evolution of the fornix and its terminology: a review

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Abstract

The historical evolution of the fornix has not been sufficiently reviewed in the literature. In this article, we follow this evolution from the first mention of the fornix in animal dissections of the second century AD, to the legalization of cadaver dissection in the 1300 s, to the introduction of neural staining techniques and the microscope in the seventeenth century, to today. We summarize the focus of fornix studies on memory to reveal its relationship with the hippocampus. We then cover the detection of the fornix and its neural connections noninvasively with the advancement of radiological imaging techniques. Finally, we discuss the prominence of the fornix as a target for deep brain stimulation in Alzheimer’s disease and post-traumatic brain injury memory disorders.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Julie A. Yamamoto, MA, for language editing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosurgery, Gazi University School of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey

    Eray Dogan & Fikret Dogulu

  2. Department of Neurosurgery, Yeditepe University School of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey

    Eray Dogan, Abuzer Gungor & Uğur Türe

  3. Department of Neurosurgery, University of Health Sciences, Bakırkoy Research and Training Hospital for Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, Istanbul, Turkey

    Abuzer Gungor

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The authors confirm contribution to the paper as follows: study conception and design: Eray Doğan, Abuzer Güngör, Uğur Türe; data collection and literature review: Eray Doğan, Abuzer Güngör; draft manuscript preparation: Eray Doğan, Abuzer Güngör; project supervision: Fikret Doğulu, Uğur Türe. All authors reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Dogan, E., Gungor, A., Dogulu, F. et al. The historical evolution of the fornix and its terminology: a review. Neurosurg Rev 45, 979–988 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10143-021-01635-w

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