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Libelle of note

For the Tractus spinoolivaris (Spino-olivary tract) as eponym Helweg tract is used. Smith and Deacon (Smith MC, Deacon P 1981 Helweg's triangular tract in man. Brain 104:249-277) denied that Helweg's tract contains spino-olivary fibres; more likely reticulospinal; Helweg's tract can be identified in Weigert-stained sections, but hardly in Luxol-Fast-Blue-stained sections. The term Fibrae olivospinales is deleted (non-existent); they are probably reticulospinal fibres; see Brodal A 1969 Neurological Anatomy in Relation to Clinical Medicine, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, New York).

(Tractus anterolateralis): A Tract may be defined as a projection (a set of fibres with one main source and one main site of termination) which manifests itself as a fibre concentration over at least part of its course (Nieuwenhuys R 1998 Structure and organisation of fibre systems. In: Nieuwenhuys R, ten Donkelaar HJ, Nicholson C: The Central Nervous System of Vertebrates. Springer, Berlin-Heidelberg-New York, pp 113-157). For fibre systems with a more diffuse organization, the term Fibrae is advocated.

A Tractus spinohypothalamicus (Spinohypothalamic tract) has been characterized functionally in monkeys (Zhang X, Wenk HN, Gokin AP, et al. 1999 Physiological studies of spinohypothalamic tract neurons in the lumbar enlargement of monkeys. J Neurophysiol 82:1054-1058; see also Westlund KN, Willis WD Jr 2012 Pain system. IN: Mai JK, Paxinos G, eds: The Human Nervous System, 3rd ed. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 1144-1186).