Abstract
The cerebrum exerts control of voluntary somatic motor activity through several descending pathways. The direct pathway is via the pyramidal system, which includes the corticospinal (pyramidal) tract together with fibers that diverge from it to innervate cranial nerve motoneurons, the corticobulbar tract (see Fig. 24.1). The cortical neurons that form the tract are upper motoneurons. There are two other major descending pathways that arise from the cortex: the corticorubral/rubrospinal tract and the corticoreticular/reticulospinal tract, but these are less direct. They involve a synapse in the red nucleus and in the reticular formation of the lower brainstem, respectively. Before evolution of the cerebral cortex in mammals, voluntary somatic motor activity was mainly mediated by upper motoneurons in the red nucleus and the brainstem reticular formation.
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© 2005 Humana Press Inc.
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(2005). Basal Ganglia and Extrapyramidal System. In: The Human Nervous System. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-730-7_24
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-730-7_24
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