Important in motor control. This area is invariably the site of pathological changes associated with Parkinson's disease. Parkinson was an eighteenth-century English physician. Lesions here result in weakness or paralysis of the contralateral half of the body, including the face. This nucleus links the cerebellum, motor cortex, and spinal cord.
Major input is from the brachium conjunctivurn and the cerebral cortex.
Projects into the motor area of the cortex and spinal cord. Rootlets of the third cranial nerve seen coursing through the tegmenturn of the midbrain. Note relationship to red nucleus. Supplies the levator palpebrae superioris, the superior rectus, inferior rectus, medial rectus, inferior oblique, and constrictor pupillae muscles. Lesions of the oculomotor nerve result in ipsilateral paralysis of the eye muscles supplied by the nerve as well as a dilated, nonresponsive pupil.