Crossword clues for decussation
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Decussation \De`cus*sa"tion\, n. [L. decussatio.] Act of crossing at an acute angle, or state of being thus crossed; an intersection in the form of an X; as, the decussation of lines, nerves, etc.
Wiktionary
n. A crossing or intersection of lines etc. so as to form an X-shape.
WordNet
Wikipedia
Decussation is used in biological contexts to describe a crossing. (In Latin anatomical terms the form decussatio is used, e.g. decussatio pyramidum.) In anatomy the term chiasma or chiasm means nearly the same as decussation.
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 for examples Decussation of pyramids and sensory decussation. Decussation describes the point where the nerves cross from one side of the brain to the other, and typically the nerves from the left side of the body decussate to the right side of the brain and the nerves from the right side of the body decussate to the left brain, however depending on the function of the nerves the level of decussation is variable.
- In botanical leaf taxology, the word decussate describes an opposite pattern of leaves which has successive pairs at right angles to each other (i.e. rotated 90 degrees along the stem when viewed from above). In effect, successive pairs of leaves cross each other. Basil is a classic example of a decussate leaf pattern.
- In tooth enamel, where bundles of rods cross each other as they travel from the enamel-dentine junction to the outer enamel surface, or near to it.
Usage examples of "decussation".
With what Equity, Chiromantical conjecturers decry these decussations in the Lines and Mounts of the hand?
For to omit the hioides or throat-bone of animals, the furcula or merry-thought in birds, which supporteth the scapulæ, affording a passage for the winde-pipe and the gullet, the wings of Flyes, and disposure of their legges in their first formation from maggots, and the position of their horns, wings and legges, in their Aurelian cases and swadling clouts: The back of the Cimex Arboreus, found often upon Trees and lesser plants, doth elegantly discover the Burgundian decussation.
And (not to enlarge upon the cruciated character of Trismegistus, or handed crosses, so often occurring in the Needles of Pharoah, and Obelisks of Antiquity) the StatuæIsiacæ, Teraphims, and little Idols, found about the Mummies, do make a decussation of Jacob's Crosse, with their armes, like that on the head of Ephraim and Manasses, and this decussis is also graphically described between them.
As the backs of several Snakes and Serpents, elegantly remarkable in the Aspis, and the Dart-snake, in the Chiasmus and larger decussations upon the back of the Rattle-snake, and in the close and finer texture of the mater formicarum, or snake that delights in Ant-hils.
Perspective pictures, in their Base, Horison, and lines of distances, cannot escape these Rhomboidall decussations.