What does the spinothalamic tract carry?

What does the spinothalamic tract carry?

The main function of the spinothalamic tract is to carry pain and temperature via the lateral part of the pathway and crude touch via the anterior part.

What are the two main parts of spinothalamic tract?

There are two main parts of the spinothalamic tract:

• The lateral spinothalamic tract transmits pain and temperature.
• The anterior spinothalamic tract (or ventral spinothalamic tract) transmits crude touch and firm pressure.

What is the function of the anterior spinothalamic tract?

The anterior spinothalamic tract carries sensory information regarding light, poorly localized touch. This information is carried in slow-conducting fibres (Aδ and C fibres) in contrast to the rapidly conducting fibres carrying information about pain and temperature.

Is the spinothalamic tract contralateral or ipsilateral?

Since the dorsal columns and spinothalamic tracts contain ipsilateral and contralateral fibres, respectively, transection of one-half of the spinal cord leads to a characteristic pattern of sensory loss. This is known as Brown–Sequard syndrome or sensory dissociation.

Is ipsilateral touch?

Consequently, within the spinal cord, discriminative touch and proprioception of the right side of the body is represented in the ipsilateral (right) posterior funiculus and pain and temperature from the right side of the body is represented in the contralateral (left) lateral funiculi.

What happens if the anterior spinothalamic tract is damaged?

Damage to the spinothalamic tract within the spinal cord, as seen in Brown Squared syndrome, results in contralateral loss of pain and temperature whilst vibration and proprioception, transmitted via the dorsal columns, will be affected ipsilaterally.

What do Spinothalamic and Spinoreticular have in common?

The spinothalamic and spinoreticular tracts are a longitudinal system of ascending fibres that convey pain, itch, temperature, tactile and proprioceptive information from the contralateral side of the body to the brain. Similar sensory input from the face passes to the trigeminal sensory system.

Is Spinothalamic contralateral?

What are the two main sensory pathways?

The somatosensory system consists of the two main paired pathways that take somatosensory information up to the brain: the medial lemniscal or posterior pathway, and the spinothalamic or anterolateral pathway.

Where is the spinothalamic fasciculus located?

Diagram of the main tracts within the spinal cord – spinothalamic fasciculus is labelled at bottom left. [edit on Wikidata] The spinothalamic tract (part of the anterolateral system or the ventrolateral system) is a sensory pathway from the skin to the thalamus.

What are the characteristics of the spinothalamic tract?

Spinothalamic tracts 1 Characteristics. The spinothalamic tracts carry pain, temperature, non discriminative touch and pressure information to the thalamus. 2 Lateral spinothalamic tract. The lateral spinothalamic tract lies in the lateral funiculus, medial to the ventral spinocerebellar tract. 3 Anterior spinothalamic tract.

Is the spinothalamic tract ascending or descending?

Spinothalamic tract. The spinothalamic tract is an ascending pathway of the spinal cord. Together with the medial lemnicus, it is one of the most important sensory pathways of the nervous system.

Where does the spinothalamic pathway cross over?

The pathway crosses over ( decussates) at the level of the spinal cord, rather than in the brainstem like the dorsal column-medial lemniscus pathway and lateral corticospinal tract. It is one of the three tracts which make up the anterolateral system. There are two main parts of the spinothalamic tract: