Lateral corticospinal tract

The lateral corticospinal tract (also called the crossed pyramidal tract or lateral cerebrospinal fasciculus) extends throughout the entire length of the medulla spinalis, and on transverse section appears as an oval area in front of the posterior column and medial to the posterior spinocerebellar tract.

Its fibers arise from cells in the motor area of the cerebral hemisphere of the opposite side.

They pass downward in company with those of the anterior cerebrospinal fasciculus through the same side of the brain as that from which they originate, but they cross to the opposite side in the medulla oblongata and descend in the lateral funiculus of the medulla spinalis.