The motor system is the part of the central nervous system that is involved with movement. It consists of the pyramidal and extrapyramidal system.
The motor pathway, also called the pyramidal tract or the corticospinal tract, serves as the motor pathway for upper motor neuronal signals coming from the cerebral cortex and from primitive brainstem motor nuclei. There are upper and lower motor neurons in the corticospinal tract.
The motor impulses originate in the giant pyramidal cells (Betz cells) of the motor area, i.e., the precentral gyrus of the cerebral cortex. These are the upper motor neurons of the corticospinal tract. The axons of these cells pass from the cerebral cortex to the midbrain and the medulla oblongata. Peripheral motor nerves carry the motor impulses from the anterior horn to the voluntary muscles.
Cortical upper motor neurons originate from Brodmann areas 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6, then descend into the posterior limb of the internal capsule, through the crus cerebri, down through the pons, and to the medullary pyramids, where about 90% of the axons cross to the contralateral side at the decussation of the pyramids. They then descend as the lateral corticospinal tract.
These axons synapse with lower motor neurons in the ventral horns of all levels of the spinal cord. The remaining 10% of axons descend on the ipsilateral side as the ventral corticospinal tract. These axons also synapse with lower motor neurons in the ventral horns. Most of them will cross to the contralateral side of the cord (via the anterior white commissure) just before synapsing.
Decussation of the pyramids
A deep dissection, lateral view of a brainstem. The pyramidal tract is visible in red, and pyramidal decussation is labeled at lower right.
Brodmann areas of the brain
This drawing shows the regions of the human cerebral cortex as delineated by Korvinian Brodmann on the basis of cytoarchitecture.
The midbrain nuclei include four motor tracts that send upper motor neuronal axons down the spinal cord to lower motor neurons. These are the rubrospinal tract, the vestibulospinal tract, the tectospinal tract, and the reticulospinal tract.
The function of lower motor neurons can be divided into two different groups: the lateral corticospinal tract and the anterior corticalspinal tract. The lateral tract contains upper motor neuronal axons that synapse on the dorsal lateral lower motor neurons, which are involved in distal limb control.
The anterior corticospinal tract descends ipsilaterally in the anterior column, where the axons emerge and either synapse on ventromedial lower motor neurons in the ventral horn ipsilaterally or descussate at the anterior white commissure where they synapse on ventromedial lower motor neurons contralaterally.
The ventromedial lower motor neurons control the large, postural muscles of the axial skeleton. These lower motor neurons, unlike those of the dorsal lateral, are located in the ventral horn throughout the spinal cord.
Spinal cord tracts
This diagram of spinal cord tracts shows the motor and efferent pathways in red and the sensory and afferent pathways in blue. Included in the diagram are the following motor pathways: corticospinal tracts (pyramidal tract), and extrapyramidal tracts (tectospinal tract not delineated).