Where are spinal cord tracts located?

• A. White matter only
• B. Grey matter only
• C. Both grey and white matter
• D. Dorsal horn only

Answer: (C)

Spinal cord tracts are bundles of axons that carry signals between the brain and the body. The neurons that give rise to these axons sit in the grey matter, while the axons themselves travel together as organized fiber bundles through the white matter. That combination—origin in grey matter and path through white matter—is why tracts are associated with both compartments in a broad sense. In everyday anatomy, the actual tract fibers run mainly in white matter, but their neuronal cell bodies and synaptic connections are in grey matter, so both regions are involved in the concept of spinal cord tracts.