Medulla oblongata at a glance
- What it is
- The medulla oblongata is the lowest part of the brainstem, continuous with the spinal cord.
- Location
- It lies in the posterior cranial fossa, between the pons above and the spinal cord below at the foramen magnum.
- Function
- It contains vital centres for respiration and cardiovascular control, and the nuclei of cranial nerves IX, X and XII, with parts of the nuclei of V and VIII. It also carries ascending and descending tracts.
- Body system
- Nervous · single, midline structure
- FMA ID
- FMA62004 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Pyramids contain corticospinal fibres, most of which decussate at the pyramidal decussation.
- Contains the inferior olivary nucleus and gracile and cuneate nuclei.
- The olives, bulges lateral to the pyramids, contain the inferior olivary nuclei that send climbing fibres to the cerebellum.
Clinical relevance
Medullary lesions can cause lateral medullary (Wallenberg) syndrome.
Structures next to the medulla oblongata
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Anterior spinal artery · cardiovascular
- Central canal of spinal cord · nervous
- Atlas · skeletal
- Rectus capitis anterior · muscular
- Anterior inferior cerebellar artery · cardiovascular
- Fourth ventricle · nervous
- External ear · eye & ear
- Axis · skeletal
- Salpingopharyngeus · muscular
- Rectus capitis lateralis · muscular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Medulla oblongata (FMA62004). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
- OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §12.1 Basic Structure and Function of the Nervous System. Rice University, 2022.
- Mitsuhashi N. et al. (2009). BodyParts3D: 3D structure database for anatomical concepts. Nucleic Acids Research 37, D782–D785. Data © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0.
Related anatomy
Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.