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In neuroanatomy, a neural pathway is the connection formed by that project from to make onto neurons in another location, to enable neurotransmission (the sending of a signal from one region of the nervous system to another). Neurons are connected by a single axon, or by a bundle of axons known as a nerve tract, or nerve fascicle. Shorter neural pathways are found within grey matter in the brain, whereas longer projections, made up of axons, constitute white matter.
In the hippocampus, there are neural pathways involved in its circuitry including the , that provides a connectional route from the entorhinal cortex to all fields of the hippocampal formation, including the dentate gyrus, all CA fields (including CA1), and the subiculum.
Descending motor pathways of the pyramidal tracts travel from the cerebral cortex to the brainstem or lower spinal cord. (2025). 9780878936953, Sinauer. ISBN 9780878936953 Ascending sensory neuron tracts in the dorsal column–medial lemniscus pathway (DCML) carry information from the periphery to the cortex of the brain.
Later, as neuroanatomy knowledge became more sophisticated, the trend was toward naming pathways by their origin and termination. For example, the nigrostriatal pathway runs from the substantia nigra (Latin, "black substance") to the striatum (Latin, "striped body"). This naming can extend to include any number of structures in a pathway, such that the cerebellorubrothalamocortical pathway originates in the cerebellum, in the red nucleus ("ruber" in Latin), on to the thalamus, and finally terminating in the cerebral cortex.
Sometimes, these two naming conventions coexist. For example, the name "pyramidal tract" has been mainly supplanted by lateral corticospinal tract in most texts. Note that the "old" name was primarily descriptive, evoking the pyramids of antiquity, from the appearance of this neural pathway in the medulla oblongata. The "new" name is based primarily on its origin (in the primary motor cerebral cortex, Brodmann area 4) and termination (onto the motoneuron of the spinal cord).
In the cerebellum, one of the two major pathways is that of the mossy fibers. Mossy fibers project directly to the deep nuclei, but also give rise to the following pathway: mossy fibers → granule cells → parallel fibers → Purkinje cells → deep nuclei. The other main pathway is from the and these project to Purkinje cells and also send collaterals directly to the deep nuclei. (2025). 9780195159554, Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195159554
Some neurons are responsible for conveying information over long distances. For example, motoneuron, which travel from the spinal cord to the muscle, can have axons up to a meter in length in humans. The longest axon in the human body belongs to the Sciatic Nerve and runs from the great toe to the base of the spinal cord. These are archetypal examples of neural pathways.
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