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Locus Ceruleus

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology

  • 6 Accesses

Synonyms

Blue spot; Nucleus pigmentosus pontis

Definition

Locus ceruleus (Latin, “place, dark blue”) is a pigmented noradrenergic nucleus located in the dorsorostral pons.

Current Knowledge

Locus ceruleus (also spelled locus coeruleus) contains 30,000–35,000 neurons and is made up of four subnuclei: central (largest), anterior, ventral, and posterior dorsal. The locus ceruleus is dark blue in sections; melanin granules inside the pigmented cells of locus ceruleus contribute to its blue color. The neurons of the locus ceruleus provide noradrenergic innervations to most regions of the central nervous system. The projections of the locus ceruleus include the spinal cord, brain stem, cerebellum, thalamic relay nuclei, amygdala, basal telencephalon, and cortex. The norepinephrine from the locus ceruleus has an excitatory effect on most of the brain, mediating arousal and attention processing. The locus ceruleus is targeted by several endogenous opioid peptides, e.g., enkephalin, excitatory...

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References and Readings

  • Aston-Jones, G., & Waterhouse, B. D. (2016). Locus coeruleus: From global projection system to adaptive regulation of behavior. Brain Research, 1645, 75–78.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Llorca-Torralba, M., Borges, G., Neto, F., Mico, J. A., & Berrocoso, E. (2016). Noradrenergic Locus Coeurleus pathways in pain modulation. Neuroscience, 338, 93–113.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Van Bockstaele, E. J., & Valentino, R. J. (2013). Neuropeptide regulation of the locus coeruleus and opioid-induced plasticity of stress responses. Advances in Pharmacology, 68, 405–420.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Richmond, Richmond, VA, USA

    Galya Abdrakhmanova

Authors
  1. Galya Abdrakhmanova
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Galya Abdrakhmanova .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA

    Jeffrey S. Kreutzer

  2. Kessler Foundation, Pleasant Valley Way, West Orange, NJ, USA

    John DeLuca

  3. Independent Practice, Wynnewood, PA, USA

    Bruce Caplan

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Abdrakhmanova, G. (2018). Locus Ceruleus. In: Kreutzer, J.S., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_330

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