The inferior olivary nucleus is a crumpled, bag-shaped sheet of grey matter inside the olive, the oval bump on the side of the medulla. It is the sole source of climbing fibres to the cerebellum, which signal movement errors and drive motor learning.
| Location | Within the olive on the anterolateral surface of the upper medulla, lateral to the pyramid, between the hypoglossal and glossopharyngeal-vagal rootlets |
|---|---|
| Parts |
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| Connections |
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| Blood Supply | Vertebral artery branches; Anterior spinal artery; Posterior inferior cerebellar artery |
Sends timing and error signals to the cerebellum that allow movements to be learned and adjusted with practice.
Damage to the dentato-rubro-olivary pathway causes hypertrophic olivary degeneration, an enlarged bright olive on MRI, which can produce palatal tremor and oscillating eye movements months after the original lesion. Olivary degeneration is also a feature of olivopontocerebellar forms of multiple system atrophy.
Enlargement of the inferior olive after damage to its connections in the Guillain-Mollaret triangle, often causing palatal tremor.
A neurodegenerative disease with loss of olivary, pontine and cerebellar neurons, causing ataxia and autonomic failure.
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