Tuber cinereum

The tuber cinereum is a hollow eminence of gray substance situated between the corpora mammillaria behind, and the optic chiasma in front. Laterally it is continuous with the anterior perforated substances and anteriorly with a thin lamina, the lamina terminalis. From the under surface of the tuber cinereum a hollow conical process, the infundibulum, projects downward and forward and is attached to the posterior lobe of the hypophysis.

In the lateral part of the tuber cinereum is a nucleus of nerve cells, the basal optic nucleus of Meynert, while close to the cavity of the third ventricle are three additional nuclei. Between the tuber cinereum and the corpora mammillaria a small elevation, with a corresponding depression in the third ventricle, is sometimes seen. Retzius has named it the eminentia saccularis, and regards it as a representative of the saccus vasculosus found in this situation in some of the lower vertebrates.