Decussation

Decussation
A decussate leaf pattern

Decussation (or decussatio) is used in biological contexts to describe a crossing.[1]

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 Decussation of the pyramids.
  • In phyllotaxis when an opposite pattern of leaves has successive leaf pairs that are perpendicular, it is called decussate.
  • In tooth enamel, where bundles of rods (rods are the basic structural unit of enamel) cross each other as they travel from the enamel-dentine junction to the outer enamel surface (or near to it).

References

  1. ^ decussatio at eMedicine Dictionary

See also