Pons at a glance
- What it is
- The pons is the part of the brainstem between the midbrain and medulla that relays signals between the cerebrum and cerebellum.
- Location
- It lies on the anterior surface of the brainstem in front of the cerebellum and fourth ventricle, above the medulla and below the midbrain.
- Function
- It relays cortical information to the cerebellum through the pontine nuclei and the middle cerebellar peduncle, contains nuclei of cranial nerves V to VIII (some shared with the medulla and midbrain), and has centres influencing respiration.
- Body system
- Nervous · single, midline structure
- FMA ID
- FMA67943 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Trigeminal, abducens, facial and vestibulocochlear nerves are linked to the pons.
- Basilar artery runs in the basilar groove.
- The middle cerebellar peduncles, the largest of the three, carry pontocerebellar fibres from its basal part.
Clinical relevance
Pontine lesions may cause locked-in syndrome or cranial nerve deficits.
Structures next to the pons
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- External ear · eye & ear
- Anterior inferior cerebellar artery · cardiovascular
- Basilar artery · cardiovascular
- Superior cerebellar artery · cardiovascular
- Fourth ventricle · nervous
- Inferior colliculus · nervous
- Midbrain · nervous
- Postcommunicating part of posterior cerebral artery · cardiovascular
- Cerebral aqueduct · nervous
- Peduncle of midbrain · nervous
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Pons (FMA67943). 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.