Medial lemniscus

Medial lemniscus
The sensory tract. (Medial lemniscus labeled at top right.)
Coronal section through mid-brain. ("e" is Portion of medial lemniscus, which runs to the lentiform nucleus and insula. "a’" is also the medial lemniscus.)
Details
Identifiers
Latin	lemniscus medialis
NeuroLex ID	birnlex_887
TA98	A14.1.04.111 A14.1.08.672 A14.1.06.207
TA2	5861
FMA	83675
Anatomical terms of neuroanatomy [edit on Wikidata]

In

The medial lemniscus is part of the dorsal column–medial lemniscus pathway, which ascends from the skin to the thalamus,^[1] which is important for somatosensation from the skin and joints, therefore, lesion of the medial lemnisci causes an impairment of vibratory and touch-pressure sense.

Etymology

Lemniscus means "ribbon", so named because the medial lemniscus "spirals" or "turns" as it ascends.^{[citation needed]}

Path

After neurons carrying proprioceptive or fine touch information

• The cuneate and gracile nuclei reside at the closed (lower)
  internal arcuate fibres
  .
• At the open medulla (further up the brainstem), the medial lemniscus contains axons from the trigeminal nerve (which supplies the head region), as well as the arms and legs. It sits very close to the midline, at the same orientation of the midline, with head fibres more dorsal (closer to the back), towards the fourth ventricle.
• By mid-pons, the medial lemniscus has rotated. Fibres from the head are medial, fibres from the leg are lateral.
• The orientation in the midbrain is similar to that in the pons.