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Direct Motor Pathways

Direct Motor Pathways

The direct motor pathways, also known as the pyramidal tracts, are a group of neural pathways that originate in the brain and descend through the spinal cord. They control the voluntary movement of the body. There are two major direct motor pathways: the corticospinal and the corticobulbar tracts.
The corticospinal tract is responsible for the voluntary movement of the limbs and trunk. It originates in the cerebral cortex of the brain and descends through the cerebrum's internal capsule and...

Indirect Motor Pathways

Indirect Motor Pathways

The indirect motor or extrapyramidal pathways originate in the brainstem, the lower portion of the brain that connects it to the spinal cord. They consist of several distinct tracts, each with specialized functions. The four main tracts of the indirect motor pathways are the vestibulospinal tract, the reticulospinal tract, the tectospinal tract, and the rubrospinal tract.
The vestibulospinal tract originates in the vestibular nuclei of the brainstem. The vestibular system detects changes in...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 29, 2025

Unilateral Pyramidotomy of the Corticospinal Tract in Rats for Assessment of Neuroplasticity-inducing Therapies

Unilateral Pyramidotomy of the Corticospinal Tract in Rats for Assessment of Neuroplasticity-inducing Therapies

Published on: December 15, 2014

Slowly-Conducting Pyramidal Tract Neurons in Macaque and Rat.

A Kraskov¹, D S Soteropoulos², I S Glover²

¹Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, WC1N 3BG, UK.

Cerebral Cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)

|February 7, 2020

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Previous studies missed slow pyramidal tract neurons (PTNs) due to recording bias, not recurrent inhibition. This research identified numerous slow PTNs in rats and macaques, suggesting recording methods favored faster neurons.

Keywords:

corticospinal macaque monkey pyramidal tract rat

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Motor Control
Electrophysiology

Background:

Anatomical studies reveal many fine myelinated fibers in the primate pyramidal tract (PT).
Electrophysiological studies report few PT neurons (PTNs) with slow conduction velocities (<~10 m/s).
This discrepancy suggests potential recording bias or recurrent inhibition (RI) affecting slow PTNs.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the reasons for the discrepancy between anatomical and electrophysiological findings regarding slow PTNs in the pyramidal tract.
To determine if recording bias or recurrent inhibition limits the detection of slow PTNs.

Main Methods:

Recordings from the motor cortex of anesthetized rats and macaques using a 32-contact polyprobe.
Focused search on PTNs with long antidromic latencies (ADLs) to identify slow-conducting neurons.
Analysis of spike characteristics, antidromic thresholds, and response to bicuculline (GABAA antagonist).

Main Results:

Identified 21 slow rat PTNs (CV 3-8 m/s) and 67 macaque PTNs (CV 6-12 m/s).
Slow PTN spikes were smaller and less consistently detected across contacts compared to fast PTNs.
No evidence found that recurrent inhibition prevented antidromic invasion in slow PTNs.

Conclusions:

Recording bias, favoring larger spikes from faster neurons, is the primary reason for the underrepresentation of slow PTNs in previous electrophysiological studies.
Slow PTNs are present in significant numbers and can be detected with appropriate recording techniques.
Recurrent inhibition does not appear to significantly impede antidromic invasion of slow PTNs.