The dentate nucleus is the largest of the deep cerebellar nuclei: a folded band of grey matter with a tooth-like edge, deep in the white matter of each half of the cerebellum, the most lateral of the four pairs. It forms the largest pathway from the cerebellum to the rest of the brain. [1]
The 3D brain needs JavaScript. The text below still says where the dentate nucleus is and what it does.
Opens cut by a front (coronal) slice through the cerebellum, which holds the dentate nucleus. Drag to turn, pinch or scroll to zoom, tap any part to name it; .
Not a separate shape in this atlas; lit: the part that holds it. Lit: the whole cerebellum. There is one deep in the white matter of each half of the cerebellum, the outermost of its four pairs of deep nuclei; it has no shape of its own in the BodyParts3D model, so nothing is drawn at a guessed point. [1]
Lit here: the cerebellum, the part that holds the dentate nucleus — see it on its own page.
Where it is
From the midline outwards, the deep cerebellar nuclei are the fastigial, the globose and emboliform (together the interposed nucleus) and the dentate: the largest, most lateral and evolutionarily most recent. [1][2]
The fastigial nucleus, the one nearest the midline, lies at the front end of the superior vermis, over the roof of the fourth ventricle; the dentate is the furthest out, in the hemisphere. [3][1]
With the cerebellar cortex over it, it forms a working unit called the cerebrocerebellum. [1]
Its folded, tooth-edged form develops before birth: it is visible in the fetal cerebellum at 11–12 weeks of gestation with smooth surfaces, and its folds form mostly between weeks 22 and 28. [1]
What it does
It is responsible for the planning, initiation and control of voluntary movements. [1]
In mammals it is much larger than the other three; a thin, folded layer of grey matter, it talks only with the outer (lateral) parts of the cerebellar cortex. [2]
Its upper (dorsal) part holds motor output channels, reaching the primary motor and premotor cortex through the thalamus; its lower (ventral) part holds non-motor channels to the prefrontal and posterior parietal cortex, active in working memory, rule-based learning and visuospatial tasks. [1]
Its neurons receive the cerebellar cortex’s output as inhibition from Purkinje cells, yet keep firing on their own despite it. [1]
Output: through the superior cerebellar peduncle, past the red nucleus, to the ventral anterior and ventrolateral thalamus of the opposite side, and on to the cortex. [1]
Other names
Named for its dentate (tooth-like or serrated) edge. [1]
Size
The model has no shape for the dentate nucleus itself, so it is not measured here. The cerebellum that holds it measures about 56 mm front to back, 53 mm top to bottom and 106 mm side to side on this model (the box it fits in, not its volume). [4]
Facts describe anatomy and normal function only. The 3D model is the adult male BodyParts3D brain (credits and licence); real brains vary in size and shape, so its measurements describe one model, not anyone’s brain.