Pathway
As the motor axons travel down through the cerebral white matter, they move closer together and form part of the posterior limb of the internal capsule.
They continue down into the brainstem, where some of them, after crossing over to the contralateral side, distribute to the cranial nerve motor nuclei. (Note: a few motor fibers synapse with lower motor neurons on the same side of the brainstem).
After crossing over to the contralateral side in the medulla oblongata (pyramidal decussation), the axons travel down the spinal cord as the lateral corticospinal tract.
Fibers that do not cross over in the brainstem travel down the separate ventral corticospinal tract, and most of them cross over to the contralateral side in the spinal cord, shortly before reaching the lower motor neurons.
Read more about this topic: Primary Motor Area
Famous quotes containing the word pathway:
“Many are obstinate with regard to the pathway once they have set upon it, few with regard to the goal.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“To learn from our enemies is the best pathway to loving them: for it makes us grateful to them.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Socrates drinking the hemlock,
And Jesus on the rood;
And millions who, humble and nameless,
The straight, hard pathway plod—
Some call it Consecration,
And others call it God.”
—William Herbet Carruth (1859–1929)