Spinothalamic tract

The spinothalamic tract is an ascending pathway in the anterolateral spinal cord that carries pain, temperature, and crude-touch signals toward the thalamus and cerebral cortex.

Anterolateral system: A set of ascending spinal pathways that carries pain, temperature, itch, and crude touch toward the brain. The spinothalamic tract is its principal pathway, alongside related ascending routes.
Nociception: The neural detection and processing of potentially tissue-damaging stimuli. Nociceptive signals form a major component of the tract's traffic.
Dorsal column–medial lemniscus pathway: An ascending sensory pathway carrying fine touch, vibration, and conscious proprioception from the body to the brain. Unlike the spinothalamic tract, it usually crosses sides in the medulla rather than the spinal cord.
Brown-Séquard syndrome: A pattern of neurological deficits caused by damage to one side of the spinal cord. Its opposite-side loss of pain and temperature below a lesion reflects tract decussation in the cord.
Dorsal root ganglion: A cluster of sensory-neuron cell bodies beside the spinal cord, carrying signals from peripheral receptors into the central nervous system. Primary sensory neurons that feed the tract have cell bodies here.
Thermoreception: The sensory detection of temperature by specialized receptors and neural pathways. Temperature signals ascend through the tract alongside pain information.
Spinocerebellar tract: An ascending pathway that carries proprioceptive information from the body to the cerebellum. It sends largely unconscious sensory information to the cerebellum instead of conveying pain and temperature to the thalamus.
Central cord syndrome: A spinal-cord injury pattern marked by disproportionately impaired motor function in the arms, often with variable sensory loss. Central cord damage can affect crossing spinothalamic fibers near their spinal entry levels.
Lissauer's tract: A narrow spinal-cord region where incoming pain and temperature axons travel briefly up or down before synapsing. Many incoming fibers travel here before reaching their first spinal synapse.
Crude touch: A basic form of touch perception that detects contact without precise localization or fine detail. The tract carries some touch signals that do not require fine spatial discrimination.

Linked from 11 pages