Decussation

Assessment | Biopsychology | Comparative | Cognitive | Developmental | Language | Individual differences | Personality | Philosophy | Social |
Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology |

Biological: Behavioural genetics · Evolutionary psychology · Neuroanatomy · Neurochemistry · Neuroendocrinology · Neuroscience · Psychoneuroimmunology · Physiological Psychology · Psychopharmacology (Index, Outline)

---

Decussation (or decussatio) is used in biological contexts to describe a crossing.

Examples include:

• In the brain, where nerve fibers cross from one lateral part to the other.

Examples include:

• Decussation of the pyramids or motor decussation
• Sensory decussation
• Ventral supraoptic decussation

Here, a decussation refers to the crossing of millions of axons. To achieve this, there needs to be a tight control in order to have as few errors as possible. The advantage of having such a complicated system may be to compensate for the 180 degree inversion in visual perception through the eye. In addition, it may provide a more robust structure.<ref>[http://sol.rutgers.edu/~shinbrot/NewHome2006/Papers/Decussation11.pdf

See also

• Commissure
• Corpus callosum