The tuber cinereum is a hollow eminence of gray matter situated between the mammillary bodys and the optic chiasm. The tuber cinereum is part of the hypothalamus.

Craniopharyngiomas frequently grow from remnants of the Rathke pouch, which is located on the cisternal surface of the hypothalamic region. These lesions can also extend elsewhere in the infundibulohypophyseal axis.

These tumors can also grow from the infundibulum or tuber cinereum on the floor of the third ventricle, developing exclusively into the third ventricle.