ANATOMY

Detailed explanation-1: -Both tracts descend through the spinal cord and synapse with lower motor neurons in the anterior gray horn on the same side. The lower motor neurons then leave the spinal cord through the ventral root to form peripheral nerves which innervate the musculature of the body.

Detailed explanation-2: -The ascending tracts carry sensory information from the body, like pain, for example, up the spinal cord to the brain. Descending tracts carry motor information, like instructions to move the arm, from the brain down the spinal cord to the body.

Detailed explanation-3: -Descending motor pathways arise from multiple regions of the brain and send axons down the spinal cord that innervate alpha motor neurons, gamma motor neurons, and interneurons.

Detailed explanation-4: -The white matter of the spinal cord contains a mixture of ascending (sensory or afferent) and descending (motor or efferent) tracts.