Brain: Oculomotor nucleus
Section through superior colliculus showing path of oculomotor nerve.
The cranial nerve nuclei schematically represented; dorsal view. Motor nuclei in red; sensory in blue. (Oculomotor is "III")
Latin	'
Gray's	subject #188 807
Part of
Components
Artery
Vein
Acronym(s)	{{{Acronym}}}
NeuroNames	hier-483
MeSH	[1]
Dorlands/Elsevier	{{{DorlandsPre}}}/{{{DorlandsSuf}}}

The fibers of the oculomotor nerve arise from a nucleus in the midbrain, which lies in the gray substance of the floor of the cerebral aqueduct and extends in front of the aqueduct for a short distance into the floor of the third ventricle. From this nucleus the fibers pass forward through the tegmentum, the red nucleus, and the medial part of the substantia nigra, forming a series of curves with a lateral convexity, and emerge from the oculomotor sulcus on the medial side of the cerebral peduncle. Image File history File links Cn3nucleus. ... The superior colliculus is part of the brain that sits below the thalamus and surrounds the pineal gland in the mesencephalon of vertebrate brains. ... The oculomotor nerve () is the third of twelve paired cranial nerves. ... Image File history File links Gray696. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... NeuroNames is a system of nomenclature for the brain and related structures. ... Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) is a huge controlled vocabulary (or metadata system) for the purpose of indexing journal articles and books in the life sciences. ... Elseviers logo Elsevier, the worlds largest publisher of medical and scientific literature, forms part of the Reed Elsevier group. ... The oculomotor nerve () is the third of twelve paired cranial nerves. ... In biological anatomy, the mesencephalon (or midbrain) is the middle of three vesicles that arise from the neural tube that forms the brain of developing animals. ... The mesencephalic duct, also known as the Aqueduct of Silvius or the cerebral aqueduct, contains cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), is within the mesencephalon (or midbrain) and connects the third ventricle in the thalamus (or diencephalon) to the fourth ventricle, which is between the pons and cerebellum. ... The third ventricle is one of the four connected fluid-filled cavities within the human brain. ... The midbrain tegmentum is part of the midbrain extending from the substantia nigra to the cerebral aqueduct. ... The red nucleus is a structure in the rostral midbrain involved in motor coordination. ... The substantia nigra (Latin for black substance) is a portion of the midbrain thought to be involved in certain aspects of movement and attention. ... The cerebral peduncle, by most classifications, is everything in the mesencephalon except the tectum. ...

The nucleus of the oculomotor nerve does not consist of a continuous column of cells, but is broken up into a number of smaller nuclei, which are arranged in two groups, anterior and posterior. Those of the posterior group are six in number, five of which are symmetrical on the two sides of the middle line, while the sixth is centrally placed and is common to the nerves of both sides. The anterior group consists of two nuclei, an antero-medial and an antero-lateral .

The nucleus of the oculomotor nerve, considered from a physiological standpoint, can be subdivided into several smaller groups of cells, each group controlling a particular muscle.

A nearby nucleus, the Edinger-Westphal nucleus, is responsible for the autonomic functions of the oculomotor nerve, including pupillary constriction and lens accommodation. The Edinger-Westphal nucleus is the accessory parasympathetic nucleus of the oculomotor nerve, supplying the constricting muscles of the iris. ... The human eye The pupil is the central transparent area (showing as black). ...

External links

• Diagram at University of Michigan
• BrainMaps at UCDavis Oculomotor%20nucleus

The University of California, Davis, commonly known as UC Davis, is one of the ten University of California campuses. ...