decussation

[dee-kuh-sey-shuhn, dek-uh-]

noun

1. a process of becoming or condition of being crossed in the form of an X .

2. Anatomy.,  a nerve or tract of nerve fibers that crosses from one side of the central nervous system to the other.

Word History and Origins

Origin of decussation¹

First recorded in 1650–60; decussate + -ion

Example Sentences

Scattered in the “reticular substance” of the medulla from the upper end of the fourth ventricle to the pyramidal decussation, they merit the collective designation of reticular ganglia.

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Accordingly, the sensory fibres from the right and left sides interlace each other in the gray matter; this arrangement has been termed the decussation, or crossing of these fibres.

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The pons possesses a median raphe continuous with that of the medulla oblongata, and formed like it by a decussation of fibres in the mesial plane.

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He described the decussation of the optic nerves and the capsule of the crystalline lens, and gave the first clear description that has survived of the structure of the eye.

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He was the first scientist to work out the physiology of the spinal cord, demonstrating that the decussation of the sensory fibres is in the cord itself.

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Related Words

• bridge 
• crossroad 
• intersection 
• junction 
• overpass 
• passage