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All parts of the brain › Brain chemicals › Histamine

Where is histamine made in the brain?

In the brain, histamine is made by one small cell group: the tuberomammillary nucleus, in the back third of the hypothalamus, the sole source of histamine pathways in the human brain. Its fibres reach much of the brain; the densest go to the cerebral cortex, hippocampus, striatum, nucleus accumbens and amygdala, and others reach the septum, thalamus and midbrain. Its neurons fire fastest when you are awake and stop in sleep. [1][2]

The 3D brain needs JavaScript. The lists below still say where histamine is made and where it is sent.

Lit: the parts that hold the cells making histamine (blue) and the parts it is sent to (orange).

Slice

Where histamine is made is lit in blue, where it is sent in orange. Drag to turn, pinch or scroll to zoom; tap a part or a “light” button to name it on its own; .

Not separate shapes in this atlas; lit: the parts that hold them. Lit in blue: the whole hypothalamus, which holds the tuberomammillary nucleus; the cell groups that make histamine are too small to be shapes in the BodyParts3D model, so nothing is drawn at a guessed point. [1][2]

Lit in orange: the hippocampus, caudate nucleus, putamen, amygdala, septum (septum of telencephalon), pons, thalamus and midbrain, where its fibres end. The fibres themselves are not drawn: the two colours show where the cells are and where they send histamine, not the routes in between. [3]

Made in: lit in blue

  • Tuberomammillary nucleus, in the hypothalamus: A nucleus in the posterior third of the hypothalamus, part of the tuber cinereum, made up largely of histamine-releasing neurons. It has no shape of its own here, so the whole hypothalamus is lit. [1][2]

Sent to: lit in orange

  • Hippocampus (TMN → Densest targets): One of the densest targets of the tuberomammillary nucleus. [1]
  • Caudate nucleus (TMN → Densest targets): Half of the neostriatum, one of the densest targets. [1][2]
  • Putamen (TMN → Densest targets): The other half of the neostriatum (the striatum in the histamine article’s list). [1][2]
  • Amygdala (TMN → Densest targets): One of the densest targets. [1][2]
  • Septum (TMN → Basal forebrain and Pons): Its medial septum and the nearby nucleus of the diagonal band, part of the acetylcholine-making basal forebrain, are reached. [2][1]
  • Pons (TMN → Basal forebrain and Pons): Its acetylcholine-making neurons in the dorsal pons are reached. [1]
  • Thalamus (TMN → Thalamus and Midbrain): Named among the targets of the brain’s histamine system. [2]
  • Ventral tegmental area, lit as the midbrain (TMN → Thalamus and Midbrain): The dopamine-making ventral tegmental area and substantia nigra, both in the midbrain, are reached; they are not separate shapes here, so the midbrain is lit. [2]
  • Not lit as a target: the cerebral cortex, one of the densest targets. Lighting all of it would hide the deeper targets, so it is left grey; see the cortex lobe by lobe on the lobes page. [1]
  • Also reached but inside parts already lit, so not lit apart: the other nuclei of the hypothalamus around the source (lit in blue), and the nucleus accumbens at the joint of the caudate nucleus and putamen. [1][2]

The pathways, as the sources name them

  • TMN → Cerebral cortex, from the tuberomammillary nucleus up to the cerebral cortex (not lit; see above). One of its densest projections; histamine released there directly raises cortical activation and arousal. [1] See What part of the brain controls consciousness?
  • TMN → Densest targets, from the tuberomammillary nucleus to the hippocampus, the neostriatum (caudate nucleus and putamen), the nucleus accumbens and the amygdala. With the cortex and the rest of the hypothalamus, these receive its densest axons. The nucleus is linked with learning and memory as well as arousal. [1] See What part of the brain controls memory?
  • TMN → Basal forebrain and Pons, from the tuberomammillary nucleus to the acetylcholine-making neurons of the basal forebrain (medial septum lit) and of the dorsal pons. An indirect route to arousal: histamine here raises the release of acetylcholine in the cerebral cortex. [1][2] See What part of the brain controls sleep?
  • TMN → Thalamus and Midbrain, from the tuberomammillary nucleus to the thalamus and to the ventral tegmental area and substantia nigra of the midbrain. Part of a system that projects widely through the brain, travelling partly in the medial forebrain bundle. [2]

Good to know

  • An on-off signal for waking: histamine neurons in the tuberomammillary nucleus fire rapidly when you are awake, more slowly when you are relaxed or tired, and stop altogether in both REM and non-REM sleep. [2] See What part of the brain controls sleep?
  • They are themselves driven by orexin: the lateral hypothalamus sends robust orexin projections to the tuberomammillary nucleus. [4]
  • Histamine acts on four receptors, H1 to H4, all G protein-coupled. [2]
  • Most of the body’s histamine is not in the brain: over 90% of it is stored in granules of mast cells and basophils, white blood cells of the immune system, and cells in the stomach lining release it to drive acid secretion. [2]
  • First described in 1910 by Henry Dale and Patrick Laidlaw; by 1913 it was named histamine, from histo- + amine, “tissue amine”. It was long treated as a local hormone before it was recognised as a brain neurotransmitter. [2]

What it takes part in

Each lit with every part that takes part: What part of the brain controls sleep? · What part of the brain controls consciousness? · What part of the brain controls memory? · What part of the brain is responsible for learning?

Where it is made, each on its own page: Tuberomammillary nucleus, in the hypothalamus.

Sources

  1. Wikipedia: Tuberomammillary nucleus
  2. Wikipedia: Histamine
  3. BodyParts3D 4.0 (3D model measured on this page), © DBCLS, CC BY-SA 2.1 Japan
  4. Wikipedia: Lateral hypothalamus

Facts describe anatomy and normal function only. The 3D model is the adult male BodyParts3D brain (credits and licence); the cell groups that make histamine have no shape in it, so the parts that hold them are lit. Real brains vary.