fasciculus gracilis

The fasciculus gracilis provides proprioception of the lower limbs and trunk to the brain stem.

Additional functions of the fasciculus gracilis include carrying deep touch, vibrational, and visceral pain information to the brain stem.

These include the crossed and uncrossed corticospinal tracts to the legs and fasciculus gracilis.

Its fibers, larger than those of the fasciculus gracilis, are mostly derived from the same source, viz., the posterior nerve roots.

The fasciculus gracilis has first-order, second-order, and third-order nerve fibers described below:

The fasciculus gracilis and the cuneate fasciculus offer the same functions but can be differentiated by the vertebral level at which information is provided.

Moving laterally on each side is the fasciculus gracilis, and lateral to that is the fasciculus cuneatus.

A low density of immunoreactive fibers containing NK was found in the fasciculus gracilis (Fig.

These fibers are pushed in towards the posterior medial sulcus to form the fasciculus gracilis and the fasciculus cuneatus.

Goll is remembered for his description of the fasciculus gracilis, which is bundle of axon fibers in the spinal cord.

If the primary axon enters below spinal level T6, the axon travels in the fasciculus gracilis, the medial part of the column.

These are the fasciculus gracilis, lying medially next to the midline, and the fasciculus cuneatus, lying laterally.

It is made up of the fasciculus gracilis and fasciculus cuneatus and itself is part of the dorsal funiculus.

The fasciculus cuneatus is triangular on transverse section, and lies between the fasciculus gracilis and the posterior column, its base corresponding with the surface of the medulla spinalis.

The lesion to fasciculus gracilis or fasciculus cuneatus results in ipsilateral loss of vibration and proprioception (position sense) as well as loss of all sensation of fine touch.

Below L3, relevant neurons pass into the fasciculus gracilis (usually associated with the dorsal column-medial lemniscal system) until L3 where they synapse with Clarke's nucleus (leading to considerable caudal enlargement).

This area includes the dorsal columns (also called the posterior columns) which contains the fasciculus gracilis and, higher in the body, the fasciculus cuneatus, which are separated by a partition of glial cells.

The fasciculus gracilis is wedge-shaped on transverse section and lies next to the posterior median septum, its base being at the surface of the medulla spinalis, and its apex directed toward the posterior gray commissure.

Joint capsules, tactile and pressure receptors send a signal through the dorsal root ganglia up through the fasciculus gracilis for lower body sensory impulses and the fasciculus cuneatus for upper body impulses.

Once the fasciculus gracilis reaches the nucleus gracilis and the fasciculus cuneatus reaches the nucleus cuneatus in the lower medulla, they begin to cross over the medulla as the internal arcuate fibers.

The fasciculus gracilis (tract of Goll or gracile fasciculus) is a bundle of axon fibers in the posterior column of the spinal cord and carries information from the middle thoracic and lower limbs of the body.

The ascending pathways coming from the body to the brain are the sensory pathways, and include the spinothalamic tract for pain and temperature sensation and the dorsal column, fasciculus gracilis, and cuneatus for touch, proprioception, and pressure sensation (both of the body).