High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The superior olivary complex (or SOC or superior olive) is a small mass of gray substance situated on the dorsal surface of the lateral part of the trapezoid body. Small in humans, but well developed in certain animals, it exhibits similar structure as the inferior olivary nucleus, and is situated immediately above it. Some of the fibers of the trapezoid body end by arborizing around the cells of this nucleus, while others arise from these cells.