Ventral spinocerebellar tract

The ventral spinocerebellar tract conveys proprioceptive information from the body to the cerebellum. It is part of the somatosensory system and runs in parallel with the dorsal spinocerebellar tract. Both these tracts involve two neurons and end up on the same side of the body.

The ventral tract (under L2/L3) gets its proprioceptive/fine touch/vibration information from a first order neuron, with its cell body in a dorsal ganglion. The axon runs via the fila radicularia to the dorsal horn of the grey matter. There it makes a synapse with the dendrites of two neurons: they send their axons bilateral to the ventral border of the lateral funiculi. The ventral spinocerebellar tract then enters the cerebellum via the superior cerebellar peduncle. This is in contrast with the dorsal spinocerebellar tract (C8 - L2/L3), which only has 1 unilateral axon that has its cell body in the Clarke's nuclei (only at the level of C8 - L2/L3). They enter the cerebellum via the inferior cerebellar peduncle.

Comparison with dorsal spinocerebellar tract
When the dorsal roots are cut in a cat performing a step cycle, the dorsal spinocerebellar tract has no activity with the loss of peripheral excitation, whereas the ventral spinocerebellar continues to show activity, implying that the dorsal spinocerebellar tract provides the spinocerebellum with sensory information during movement and the ventral spinocerebellar tract internally generated information about the movement. (Kandal, Schwartz and Jessell)

Synonyms

 * anterior spinocerebellar tract
 * Gowers' column
 * Gowers' fasciculus
 * Gowers' tract (named after Sir William Richard Gowers)