Talk:Neural pathway

Naming of neural pathways
The first named pathways were evident even in a poorly-preserved delicious brain, Delicious?? ;o) 78.146.246.14 (talk) 12:44, 18 May 2009 (UTC)


 * That was straightforward vandalism and has since been removed. Qwfp (talk) 19:08, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Content lacking (reliable) source
The information below lacks a reliable source. I've put it here so that parts of it can be added to the article again when someone finds a source. --VeniVidiVicipedia (talk) 15:43, 19 December 2016 (UTC)

A neural pathway connects a part of the nervous system to another using bundles of axons. The optic nerve is an example of a neural pathway because it connects the eye back to the brain.]] A neural pathway, neural tract, or neural face, connects one part of the nervous system with another via a bundle of axons, the long fibers of neurons. A neural pathway that serves to connect relatively distant areas of the brain or nervous system is usually a bundle of neurons, known collectively as white matter. A neural pathway that spans a shorter distance between structures, such as most of the pathways of the major neurotransmitter systems, is usually called grey matter.

Naming of neural pathways
The first named pathways are evident to the naked eye even in a poorly preserved brain, and were named by the great anatomists of the Renaissance using cadaver material. Examples of these include the great commissures of the brain such as the corpus callosum (Latin, "hard body"; not to be confused with the Latin word "colossus" - the "huge" statue), anterior commissure, and posterior commissure. Further examples of this (by no means a complete list) include the pyramidal tract, crus cerebri (Latin, "leg of the brain"), and cerebellar peduncles (Latin, "little foot of the cerebellum"). Note that these names describe the appearance of a structure but give one no information on its function or location.

Later, as neuroanatomical knowledge became more sophisticated, the trend was toward naming pathways by their origin and termination. For example, the nigrostriatal pathway, which is degenerated in Parkinson's disease, runs from the substantia nigra (Latin, "black substance") to the corpus striatum (Latin, "striped body"). This naming can extend to include any number of structures in a pathway, such that the cerebellorubrothalamocortical pathway originates in the cerebellum, synapses in the red nucleus ("ruber" in Latin), on to the thalamus, and finally terminating in the cerebral cortex.

Sometimes, these two naming conventions coexist. For example, the name "pyramidal tract" has been mainly supplanted by lateral corticospinal tract in most texts. Note that the "old" name was primarily descriptive, evoking the pyramids of antiquity, from the appearance of this neural pathway in the medulla oblongata. The "new" name is based primarily on its origin (in the primary motor cortex, Brodmann area 4) and termination (onto the alpha motor neurons of the spinal cord).

Functional aspects
In general, neurons receive information either at their dendrites or cell bodies. The axon of a nerve cell is, in general, responsible for transmitting information over a relatively long distance. Therefore, most neural pathways are made up of axons. If the axons have myelin sheaths, then the pathway appears bright white because myelin is primarily lipid. If most or all of the axons lack myelin sheaths (i.e., are unmyelinated), then the pathway will appear a darker beige color, which is generally called grey (British English, or gray in American English).

Some neurons are responsible for conveying information over long distances. For example, motor neurons, which travel from the spinal cord to the muscle, can have axons up to a meter in length in humans. The longest axon in the human body belongs to the Sciatic Nerve and runs from the great toe to the base of the spinal cord. These are archetypical examples of neural pathways.

Major neural pathways

 * Arcuate fasciculus
 * Cerebral peduncle
 * Corpus callosum
 * Pyramidal or corticospinal tract

Dopamine pathways:
 * Mesocortical pathway
 * Mesolimbic pathway.
 * Nigrostriatal pathway
 * Tuberoinfundibular pathway

Restored page
Restored page content - refs etc need to be asked for on page and given time for responding to --Iztwoz (talk) 21:06, 23 February 2017 (UTC)
 * What would be a good amount of time before removing the content? VENI VIDI VICIPEDIA talk 21:25, 23 February 2017 (UTC)
 * It's quite a long standing page - suggest time frame needs checking - there are cn's that have been on pages for years. There is a fair bit of material on page that is incorrect and this could be more easily weeded out. But where links are used these are often well based. If you cannot be bothered to make constructive changes to the page yourself, I would suggest it's better to just leave it. Best --Iztwoz (talk) 21:33, 23 February 2017 (UTC)
 * I think the whole concept of a 'neural pathway' and no reliable sources will come up that use it in a concrete manner. VENI VIDI VICIPEDIA talk 22:00, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

Proposed merge with Biological neural network
A better placing for the page which otherwise links to computing networks (unless specified). There is overlap already and are referred to in "neural  pathways and networks" in some searches Iztwoz (talk) 06:48, 17 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Support these are essentially the same topic. --Tom (LT) (talk) 00:09, 6 May 2018 (UTC)
 * Oppose. Actually, they are separate concepts. A pathway typically involves an axonal projection from one anatomical region to another, whereas a network is typically (but not always) a series of local connections within an anatomical region. --Tryptofish (talk) 18:20, 11 May 2018 (UTC)
 * The merge suggestion was not to treat them as the same concept but to give biological neural network a new home - they are both small pages and often included together on searches.--Iztwoz (talk) 06:40, 28 May 2018 (UTC)
 * I would still oppose it. The same benefit can be achieved by using Template:For in a hatnote. Small page size is not a big deal, and the concepts are simply too unrelated to find a home on the same page. --Tryptofish (talk) 17:34, 28 May 2018 (UTC)


 * Withdraw I would like to withdraw this request in preference for the proposed Biological neural network page name change.--Iztwoz (talk) 13:00, 3 June 2018 (UTC)

afferent and efferent neural pathways?
anybody cares to add a paragraph? afferent (towards) vs efferent (away) Thy, SvenAERTS (talk) 22:54, 10 April 2023 (UTC)


 * afferent (towards) neural pathways: for example the Cough reflex goes from the lungs towards the brain
 * afferent and efferent neural pathways: for example the Cough reflex goes from the brain back direction of the lungs: "relevant signals transmitted back from the cerebral cortex and medulla via the vagus and superior laryngeal nerves to the glottis, external intercostals, diaphragm, and other major inspiratory and expiratory muscles."
 * SvenAERTS (talk) 23:01, 10 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Along the same idea,
 * afferent (arrives)
 * efferent (exits)
 * UnderEducatedGeezer (talk) 06:41, 27 February 2024 (UTC)