NETTER - Neuroscience Flash Cards

Coronal Sections through
the Forebrain: Geniculate Nuclei
1. Columns of the fornix
2. Middle cerebellar peduncle
3. Lateral cerebellar
hemisphere
4. Body of the corpus
callosum
5. Body of the lateral ventricle
6. Body of the caudate
nucleus
7. Pulvinar
8. Inferior horn of the lateral
ventricle
9. Hippocampal formation
10. Superior cerebellar
peduncle
11. Pons
12. Medulla
13. Cervical spinal cord
Comment: Cerebellar peduncles are conspicuous in coronal
sections through the forebrain at the thalamus level. The inferior
cerebellar peduncle conveys extensive somatosensory, trigeminal
sensory, and brain stem reticular formation input to both deep nuclei
and the cerebellar cortex. The cerebellum acts as a comparator,
receiving extensive sensory and other input and initiating
adjustments to smooth and coordinate a wide range of functions, the
most conspicuous being motor movements; inebriation involves loss
of cerebellar function, with resultant loss of motor coordination, as
demonstrated in the cerebellar examination of field sobriety testing.
The deep nuclei of the cerebellum provide the coarse adjustment,
and the cerebellar provides the fine adjustment, acting through
projections to deep nuclei. The middle cerebellar peduncle conveys
massive input to the cerebellum through the corticopontocerebellar
system, through which the cerebellum is informed of motor planning
and other cortical intentions. The cerebellum output uses the
superior cerebellar peduncle for connections from the deep nuclei
to upper motor neuronal systems (globose and emboliform nuclei to
the red nucleus, dentate nucleus to the ventral lateral nucleus of the
thalamus) for the rubrospinal and corticospinal systems. The fastigial
nucleus and flocculonodular lobe output travels through the inferior
peduncle and helps regulate vestibulospinal and reticulospinal upper
motor neuronal systems.
Regional Neuroscience See book 13.18B