Decussation

Section of the medulla oblongata at the level of the decussation of the pyramids.

Decussation is used in biological contexts to describe a crossing. (In Latin anatomical terms the form decussatio is used, e.g. decussatio pyramidum) In anatomy the term chiasma or chiasm means much the same as decussation.

Examples include:

• In the brain, where nerve fibers obliquely cross from one lateral part to the other, that is to say they cross at a level other than their origin. See for example Decussation of pyramids.
• In phyllotaxis when an opposite pattern of leaves has successive leaf pairs that are perpendicular, it is called decussate. In effect, successive pairs of leaves cross each other.
  

  

  Decussate phyllotaxis of Crassula rupestris
• In tooth enamel, where bundles of rods cross each other as they travel from the enamel-dentine junction to the outer enamel surface, or near to it.

See also

• Commissure