| Superior olivary complex | |
|---|---|
 Scheme showing the course of the fibers of the lemniscus; medial lemniscus in blue, lateral in red. (Superior olivary nucleus is labeled at center right.) | |
| Details | |
| Identifiers | |
| Latin | nucleus olivaris superior |
| MeSH | D065832 |
| NeuroNames | 569 |
| NeuroLex ID | birnlex_1307 |
| TA98 | A14.1.05.415 |
| TA2 | 5937 |
| FMA | 72247 |
| Anatomical terms of neuroanatomy | |
The superior olivary complex (SOC) or superior olive is a collection of brainstem nuclei that is located in pons, functions in multiple aspects of hearing and is an important component of the ascending and descending auditory pathways of the auditory system. The SOC is intimately related to the trapezoid body: most of the cell groups of the SOC are dorsal (posterior in primates) to this axon bundle while a number of cell groups are embedded in the trapezoid body. Overall, the SOC displays a significant interspecies variation, being largest in bats and rodents and smaller in primates.