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Robotic Spine Universe

Pathways

Vestibulospinal tract

Balance: keeping the body upright

The vestibular nuclei of the brainstem, which receive the balance signals from the inner ear, send axons down the cord to the muscles that keep the body upright.

Drawn for the left side of the body. Schematic route through the model’s landmarks; the pulse speed is illustrative.

Route

served sideother sideCortexDeep brainMidbrainPonsMedullaSpinal cordBody1234

Step by step

  1. Vestibular nuclei (brainstem) · served side
  2. Vestibulospinal tract · served side
  3. Ventral horn · served side · synapse
  4. Antigravity muscles · served side

Schematic Filled circles: synapses. X: the pathway crosses the midline. Numbers match the list.

Where it runs in the cord (L3)

left fasciculus gracilisright fasciculus gracilisleft fasciculus cuneatusright fasciculus cuneatusleft lateral corticospinal tractright lateral corticospinal tractleft spinal lemniscusright spinal lemniscusleft spino-olivary tractright spino-olivary tractleft ventrolateral reticulospinal tractright ventrolateral reticulospinal tractleft lateral vestibulospinal tractright lateral vestibulospinal tractleft ventral corticospinal tractright ventral corticospinal tractleft tectospinal tractright tectospinal tractleft medial reticulospinal tractright medial reticulospinal tractleft medial longitudinal fasciculusright medial longitudinal fasciculusleft ventral hornright ventral hornleft intermediate zoneright intermediate zoneleft dorsal hornright dorsal hornAnteriorPosteriorLR
  • Ascending (sensory)
  • Corticospinal (motor)
  • Other descending
  • Grey matter
Regions in this section (text list)
  • left fasciculus gracilis (spared)
  • right fasciculus gracilis (spared)
  • left fasciculus cuneatus (spared)
  • right fasciculus cuneatus (spared)
  • left lateral corticospinal tract (spared)
  • right lateral corticospinal tract (spared)
  • left spinal lemniscus (spared)
  • right spinal lemniscus (spared)
  • left spino-olivary tract (spared)
  • right spino-olivary tract (spared)
  • left ventrolateral reticulospinal tract (spared)
  • right ventrolateral reticulospinal tract (spared)
  • left lateral vestibulospinal tract (focus)
  • right lateral vestibulospinal tract (focus)
  • left ventral corticospinal tract (spared)
  • right ventral corticospinal tract (spared)
  • left tectospinal tract (spared)
  • right tectospinal tract (spared)
  • left medial reticulospinal tract (spared)
  • right medial reticulospinal tract (spared)
  • left medial longitudinal fasciculus (spared)
  • right medial longitudinal fasciculus (spared)
  • left ventral horn (spared)
  • right ventral horn (spared)
  • left intermediate zone (spared)
  • right intermediate zone (spared)
  • left dorsal horn (spared)
  • right dorsal horn (spared)

Highlighted: the region of the PAM50 white-matter atlas for this pathway, on both sides of the cord. A lesion here takes away what it carries below the level, on the side its fibres serve at that point.

Cut it on the left in the lesion explorer

What the sources say

“The vestibulospinal tract connects the brain stem nuclei of the vestibular system with the spinal cord.” Betts et al. 2022, §14.3

Sources: Betts et al. 2022, §14.3