The claustrum has remained one of the most enigmatic structures in the brain for several centuries. It is a thin, irregular sheet of gray matter, with one located on each side of the brain. It lies under the inner surface of the neocortex, below the general region of the insula, and above the outer surface of the putamen, with fiber tracts on each side: the extreme and external capsules. It has a small size, a very peculiar location and shape, and it is therefore probably very difficult to study it´s connections. It has the highest density of 5-HT2A receptors in the brain, and therefore it might be previously unrecognized, but also very important target of antipsychotics and psychedelics.
What is the exact function and role of the claustrum in the brain?
Claustrum is still considered a mysterious structure of the brain. Please see the manuscripts in Attachment.
The claustrum is a thin, irregular, sheet-like neuronal structure hidden beneath the inner surface of the neocortex in the general region of the insula. Its function is enigmatic ( Crick and Koch, 2005).
In biology, if seeking to understand function, it is usually a good idea to study structure. Thus, if the claustrum is critical to binding information within and across sensory and motor modalities, certain anatomical constraints would have to be met. In particular, the information from say, a visual cortical region would need to be combined with information from somatosensory, auditory or motor cortices. This demands some sort of intermixing of the associated signals within the claustrum. Several, non-exclusive, anatomical and biophysical substrates for such widespread intra-claustral interactions are possible.
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/850d/e93d6812b5913f0ce63d3b77f3c368f493c7.pdf
Article What is the function of the claustrum?
Article Hypotheses Relating to the Function of the Claustrum
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnsys.2014.00048/full
Article The claustrum’s proposed role in consciousness is supported ...
Article A Pilot Study of the Role of the Claustrum in Attention and ...
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