Trunk nerves (intercostal, sympathetic, vagus nerve)
Cuneate fasciculus (column of Burdach)
Fasciculus cuneatus
- Origin
- Lateral part of the posterior column, built from the posterior roots of T6 up to C1, and therefore present only from about T6 upwards
- Insertion
- Ends in the cuneate nucleus in the medulla oblongata and continues through the crossed medial lemniscus to the thalamus
- Function
- Carries fine touch, vibration sense and conscious proprioception from the upper half of the body, arm and hand upwards, uncrossed
- Innervation
- Somatosensory, uncrossed up to the medulla oblongata
- Movement & chain
- Reports the position of the arm and hand
- Palpation
- Not palpable; tested with vibration and position sense of the fingers and with stereognosis
- Clinical
- Loss of fine touch and position sense in the hands in cervical posterior column damage, for instance in subacute combined degeneration or cervical myelopathy; the patient can no longer recognise objects by touch. The tract only existing above T6 is why it is visible only in the upper part of the cord in the model.
- Segmental innervation
- Carries the segments above T6, that is C1-T6
- In clinical practice
- Testing stereognosis and finger position sense, and watching for cuts and burns when hand sensation is reduced
- Region in the model
- Trunk nerves (intercostal, sympathetic, vagus nerve)