Pathways and tracts

[ProteinTreasure]

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I am having a hard time understanding and learning the tracts. Please help.... Thank you all!!!

 

[FlowLimited]

Can you give us some specifics? What's slipping you up?

 

[TexasTriathlete]

They're not tricky. They just ****ing suck. Just go over them a million times.

 

[bodonid]

don't learn them by name, learn them by modality.

that seems sort of basic, but other than that I can't think of any advice.

 

[Droopy Snoopy]

Can you give us some specifics? What's slipping you up?

Yeah OP, that's kinda vague. There are a bunch of good websites and book suggestions in the stickies.

 

[HPSPpayissues]

Go get High-Yield Neuro. It VERY WELL summarizes all the important pathways. They are especially good at simplifying AND pointing out HIGH-YIELD pathways like Posterior column ascending, auditory, pupillary reflex, visual field, Cortical Spinal tracts, Trigeminal tracts, etc

 

[FutureInternist]

I am having a hard time understanding and learning the tracts. Please help.... Thank you all!!!

This is from my lecture notes so maybe not exactly what you're looking for. Formatting may be a little confusing but rectangles that cover the arrows pertains to everything that those arrows lead to.

Good Luck.

 

[silas2642]

I am having a hard time understanding and learning the tracts. Please help.... Thank you all!!!

It's repetition-- there is no way around it. I agree with the other poster that HY neuro does a good job explaining them and putting everything together. The other good source that I found useful was First Aid.

 

[coldweatherblue]

yeah learning brain stem was..... work.

What worked for me was learning all the pathways (hard part) then going through blank slides at all different levels and ID'ing them. Also connect pathways from first order to fourth order neurons. Go through all the pathways like this and it'll click.

 

[gman33]

What I've found difficult is identifying lesion position based on neurological exam findings. I can identify tracts, positions, etc, but I have a hard time figuring out exactly what level a lesion is at. I know the general idea is to combine a few different findings and then you should be able to tell where the lesion is located. I'm just having trouble doing this under timed exam conditions.

Any suggestions?

 

[Aesculapius]

There is a finite number of tracts. If you look over them enough, you will remember them. Test by doing problems on any of the number of online neuroanatomy websites.

 

[cpants]

Go over the tracts a bunch of times by drawing them on a whiteboard. Make sure to include the relevant synapses and decussations in your drawings. Then spend a lot of time going over lesions. This is almost exclusively how these questions are tested. Memorize the most important ones (ALS, Guillain-Barre, Common vascular territories, etc.), and then just start making up your own. Draw a cord/medulla/pons/midbrain/cortex and shade part of it out. Then come up with the symptoms the patient would experience if that lesion happened. Spend a lot of time with this and those dreaded neuroanatomy questions turn into cake.

 

[DickyV]

The blank diagrams in Haines' neuro atlas are fantastic to photocopy and then fill in with the pathways over and over and over and over again.

 

[HPSPpayissues]

memorize the most CLINICALLY RELEVANT tracts. Some tracts such as rubrospinal and spinocerebellar have no clinical symptoms. Go get a review book like First Aid, or High-Yield and see which ones are the most relevant ones. For example, the High-Yield book points out that Corticobulbar, Spinothalamic and corticospinal are must-knows that FREQUENTLY show up!

 

[Doctor D.]

Try this website..It was a lifesaver for me when I took the class🙂
http://library.med.utah.edu/kw/animations/hyperbrain/pathways/