The alar plate (or alar lamina) is a neural structure in the embryonic nervous system, part of the dorsal side of neural tube, that involves the communication of general somatic and general visceral sensory impulses. The caudal part later becomes sensory axon part of the spinal cord.
The alar plate specifically later on becomes the dorsal gray of the spinal cord, and develops into the sensory nuclei of cranial nerves V, VII, VIII, IX, and X. The inferior olivary nucleus, mesencephalic nucleus of V, main sensory nucleus of V, and red nucleus are also developed from this plate.
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—Jan Clausen (b. 1943)