Bassett Collection of Stereoscopic Images of Human Anatomy

Collection Home

Serial transverse sections of the brain stem

Medulla oblongata.

Image #30-1

KEYWORDS: Brain, Medulla, Midbrain, Peripheral nervous system, Pons.

Creative Commons

Stanford holds the copyright to the David L. Bassett anatomical images and has assigned Creative Commons license Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International to all of the images.

For additional information regarding use and permissions, please contact Dr. Drew Bourn at dbourn@stanford.edu.

Serial transverse sections of the brain stem

Medulla oblongata.

At this level, 3 mm. above the preceding section, the cochlear nuclei are well defined on each side of their positions above and lateral to the restiform body. The incoming cochlear nerves (20), however, are partially hidden by the flocculi. The vestibular nerves (19) are also obscured by the flocculi but are well seen in the following view as they enter the brain stem. The region between the exit point of the facial nerve and that of the acoustic nerve is transversed by obliquely directed pontine fibers which enter a nuclear area known as the pontobulbar body (21). The medial lemniscus (9) is becoming triangular in shape as it approaches the pons.

1 .	Dentate nucleus
2 .	Medial longitudinal fasciculus
3 .	Choroid plexus fourth ventricle
4 .	Area acustica
5 .	Restiform body (inferior cerebellar peduncle)
6 .	Reticular gray matter
7 .	Spinal trigeminal tract
8 .	Inferior olivary nucleus
9 .	Medial lemniscus
10 .	Pyramid (medulla oblongata)
11 .	Arcuate nuclei
12 .	Emboliform nucleus
13 .	Globose nucleus
14 .	Nodulus
15 .	Dorsal cochlear nucleus
16 .	Floccular peduncle
17 .	Ventral cochlear nucleus
18 .	Flocculus
19 .	Vestibulocochlear nerve (VIII) vestibular part
20 .	Vestibulocochlear nerve (VIII) cochlear part
21 .	Facial nerve (VII) and "corpus pontobulbare"
22 .	Trigeminal nerve (V)
23 .	Optic chiasm