Definition
A pontine-mesencephalic pathway that carries auditory information. Lemniscus means “ribbon” and anatomically is used to refer to a fiber pathway or tract. The fibers in the lateral lemniscus originate in the cochlear and superior olivary nuclei of the pons and carry both ipsilateral and contralateral auditory information. It terminates in the nuclei of the inferior colliculi in the mesencephalon. The lateral lemniscus should be differentiated from the medial lemniscus, another brainstem fiber pathway which carries somatosensory information. Because of the bilateral nature of the auditory pathways, unilateral lesions of the lateral lemniscus are not normally associated with clinically notable hearing losses.
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Haines, D. E. (Ed.). (2002). Fundamental neuroscience. Philadelphia: Churchill Livingstone/Elsevier Science.
Wilson-Pauwek, L., Akesson, E. J., Stewart, P. A., & Spacey, S. D. (2002). Cranial nerves in health and disease. Hamilton: B.C. Decker.
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Mendoza, J.E. (2018). Lateral Lemniscus. In: Kreutzer, J.S., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_746
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_746
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