Occipitopontine fibers

Occipitopontine fibres are descending corticopontine fibres arising from the occipital cortex and projecting to the ipsilateral pontine nuclei. Prats-Galino et al. (2012), have grouped them with parietal and temporal corticopontine fibres as the parietotemporooccipitopontine tract. The tract tends to occupy a more dorsolateral position compared with the frontopontine tract.

The fibres relay in the pontine nuclei, whose neurons give rise to transverse pontine fibres. These cross the midline and pass through the middle cerebellar peduncle to reach the contralateral cerebellum. Thus, the occipitopontine fibres themselves terminate in the pontine nuclei and do not directly cross into the cerebellum.