NEUROANATOMY 2016 NEUROANATOMY © LC Hudson, DVM, PhD Professor Emerita of Anatomy North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine Raleigh NC 27607
[email protected] I. CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM All 5 divisions of the brain are involved with the function of the eyes and/or adnexa - in either conscious/response pathways or reflex pathways. The divisions are the telencephalon (cerebral hemispheres), diencephalon (thalamus, hypothalamus, metathalamus (lateral geniculate nuclei)), mesencephalon (midbrain (pretectal, oculomotor, trochlear nuclei, parasym. nucleus of CN III)), metencephalon (cerebellum and pons (vestibular nuclei, spinal tract of CN V)) and myelencephalon (medulla oblongata (abducens, facial, vestibular nuclei)). The more cranial spinal cord is also involved with function of the eyelids through sensory innervation into the cervical spinal cord, and through sympathetic autonomic function (T1-T3 segments). The spinal cord caudal to T3 is not involved with eye functions. II. PERIPHERAL NERVOUS SYSTEM The majority of the 12 pr. of cranial nerves have some function with the eyes/adnexa- CNs II, III, IV, V (ophthalmic and maxillary branches), VI, VII, and VIII including appropriate sensory and/or autonomic ganglia of these cranial nerves. Retrograde tracing studies in cats showed that some cervical spinal nerves have sensory projections from the eyelids even though apparently physically distant. Autonomic sympathetic fibers are projected via Tl-T3 spinal nerves into the sympathetic trunk, traveling through the neck in the vagosympathetic trunk and synapsing in the cranial cervical ganglion. Postganglionic fibers then travel along blood vessels and with other cranial nerves to reach the globe. III. NOMENCLATURE Veterinary ophthalmologists tend to use human/zoological nomenclature including eponyms such as Meibomian gland, Descemet's membrane, and canal of Schlemm; probably because of the intense use of human literature.