Red nucleus
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| Brain: Red nucleus | ||
|---|---|---|
 | ||
| Section through the superior colliculus showing the path of the oculomotor nerve. | ||
| Latin | nucleus ruber | |
| Gray's | subject #188 802 | |
| NeuroNames | hier-496 | |
| MeSH | Red+Nucleus | |
| Dorlands/Elsevier | n_11/12583247 | |
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The red nucleus is a structure in the rostral midbrain involved in motor coordination.
Function
In animals without a significant corticospinal tract, gait is mainly controlled by the red nucleus.
In humans, the red nucleus mainly controls the muscles of the shoulder and upper arm, but it has some control over the lower arm and hand as well. It is less important in its motor functions for humans than in many other mammals, because, in humans, the corticospinal tract is dominant. However the crawling of babies is controlled by the red nucleus, as is arm-swinging in normal walking. Since the red nucleus has sparse control over hands (as the Rubrospinal tract is more involved in large muscle movement such as that for Arms and Legs), fine control of the fingers is not modified by the functioning of the red nucleus (rather it relies on the corticobulbar tract [CoBuTr]).
Input and output
The red nucleus receives many inputs from the contralateral cerebellum and an input from the ipsilateral motor cortex.
It sends efferent axons (the rubrospinal projection) to the contralateral half of the rhombencephalic reticular formation and spinal cord. These efferent axons cross just ventral to the nucleus and descend through the midbrain to the spinal cord, where the rubrospinal tract which they make up runs ventral to the lateral corticospinal tract in the lateral funiculus.
Meaning of name
Its name derives from an iron-containing pigment in many of the cells, which in fresh samples gives it a pink appearance.
See also
Additional images
 Schematic representation of the chief ganglionic categories (I to V). |
 Deep dissection of brain-stem. Ventral view. |
 Transverse section through mid-brain. |
 Transverse section of mid-brain at level of superior colliculi. |
 Coronal section of brain immediately in front of pons. |
External links
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Acknowledgement and Attribution Regarding Sources of Content
Some of the initial content on this page may be incorporated in part from copyleft sources in the public domain including wikis such as Wikipedia and AskDrWiki. Drug information for patients came from the The National Library of Medicine. Infectious disease information may have come from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Differential Diagnoses are drawn from clinicians as well as an amalgamation of 3 sources: 1.The Disease Database; 2. Kahan, Scott, Smith, Ellen G. In A Page: Signs and Symptoms. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing, 2004:3; 3. Sailer, Christian, Wasner, Susanne. Differential Diagnosis Pocket. Hermosa Beach, CA: Borm Bruckmeir Publishing LLC, 2002:7 .
