The arbor vitae (
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
for "
tree of life
The tree of life is a fundamental archetype in many of the world's mythological, religious, and philosophical traditions. It is closely related to the concept of the sacred tree.Giovino, Mariana (2007). ''The Assyrian Sacred Tree: A Hist ...
") is the
cerebellar
The cerebellum (Latin for "little brain") is a major feature of the hindbrain of all vertebrates. Although usually smaller than the cerebrum, in some animals such as the mormyrid fishes it may be as large as or even larger. In humans, the cereb ...
white matter
White matter refers to areas of the central nervous system (CNS) that are mainly made up of myelinated axons, also called tracts. Long thought to be passive tissue, white matter affects learning and brain functions, modulating the distributi ...
, so called for its branched, tree-like appearance. In some ways it more resembles a fern and is present in both
cerebellar hemispheres. It brings sensory and motor information to and from the
cerebellum. The arbor vitae is located deep in the cerebellum. Situated within the arbor vitae are the
deep cerebellar nuclei
The cerebellum has four deep cerebellar nuclei embedded in the white matter in its center. 4 pairs of nuclei are embedded deep in the medullary centre, in the medial to lateral direction. They are fastigial nuclei, globose nuclei, emboliform nuc ...
; the
dentate
Dentate may refer to:
* A species having dentition
* An energy-dissipating baffle block in a spillway
* An individual not being edentulous
* Dentate gyrus of the hippocampus
* Dentate nucleus of the cerebellum
* Denticity in chemistry
* Dentat ...
,
globose
A sphere () is a geometrical object that is a three-dimensional analogue to a two-dimensional circle. A sphere is the set of points that are all at the same distance from a given point in three-dimensional space.. That given point is the ...
,
emboliform and the
fastigial nuclei. These four different structures lead to the efferent projections of the cerebellum.
Related
Godfrey Blount's 1899 book ''Arbor Vitae'' was ‘a book on the nature and development of imaginative design for the use of teachers and craftsmen’.
[Blount, Arbor Vitae, 1899]
Additional Images
File:Arbor vitae by Sanjoy Sanyal.webm, Dissection video (1 min 14 s). Describing the arbor vitae.
File:Midline sagittal view of the brainstem and cerebellum - Arbor vitae.png, Midsagittal section of the brainstem.
File:Slide2qq.JPG, Midsagittal section of the brainstem. Arbor vitae labelled at the center.
File:Sobo 1909 648.png, Midsagittal section of the brainstem.
File:Sobo 1909 657.png, Coronal section of the cerebellum.
File:1612 Cerebellar Peduncles-02.jpg, Arbor vitae and cerebellar peduncles.
References
External links
*
Cerebellar connections
{{neuroanatomy-stub