substantia nigra

Predominantly gray matter midbrain structure lying dorsal to the crus cerebri and ventral to the midbrain tegmentum. It is divided into a dorsal, cellularly compact region known as the pars compacta and a more ventrally located, containing more loosely packed cells, the pars reticulata. The most lateral region of the reticulata is identified as the pars lateralis (MM). Every claim on this page comes from the Leumas anatomy graph and carries its source.

What the substantia nigra is

Predominantly gray matter midbrain structure lying dorsal to the crus cerebri and ventral to the midbrain tegmentum. It is divided into a dorsal, cellularly compact region known as the pars compacta and a more ventrally located, containing more loosely packed cells, the pars reticulata. The most lateral region of the reticulata is identified as the pars lateralis (MM). The atlas records it as a nerve at the organ scale in the human body.

Where the substantia nigra is

It sits within the nervous system. Positioned deliberately as part of this species body plan.

What the substantia nigra connects to

The atlas records 11 typed relationships for it, across 4 kinds of connection. part of basal ganglion, material anatomical entity and midbrain, and 1 more.

Supply and innervation

This dataset asserts no arterial supply, venous drainage or innervation for the substantia nigra. Only a minority of structures carry those edges here, so an empty answer means nothing has been recorded — not that there is nothing to record.

Also called

Also recorded as SN, Soemmering's substance, nucleus of basis pedunculi, nucleus pigmentosus subthalamo-peduncularis, substancia nigra and substantia nigra (Soemmerringi). Searching any of those names reaches this page.

Source

Uberon multi-species anatomy ontology (Mungall et al.), CC BY 4.0. Term UBERON:0002038, version 2026-06-19, retrieved 2026-08-24. Licence: CC-BY-4.0.

• Part of: basal ganglion, material anatomical entity, midbrain and cerebral peduncle.
• A kind of: anatomical structure and nucleus of brain.
• contains: substantia nigra pars compacta, substantia nigra pars lateralis and substantia nigra pars reticulata.
• contributes to morphology of: collection of basal ganglia and midbrain.

Questions

Where is the substantia nigra?

It sits within the nervous system. Positioned deliberately as part of this species body plan.

What does the substantia nigra connect to?

Part of: basal ganglion, material anatomical entity, midbrain and cerebral peduncle.

Is the substantia nigra the same in other species?

Leumas holds the same relationship vocabulary for every species it carries, so where another dataset records this structure you can put the two side by side on /compare.