Week 5 Lecture 12: Ascending Pathways Flashcards
What sensations is the spinothalamic pathway responsible for?
crude touch
pressure
pain
temperature
What sensations is the dorsal column medial lemniscus pathway responsible for?
proprioception discriminative touch vibration pressure (ipsilateral)
What is a dermatome?
a specific region of skin of the BODY innervated by the sensory fibres of a single segmental spinal nerve
How are sensory roots of specific spinal nerves affected in herpes zooster
- infection of the sensory roots of specific spinal nerves
- virus can remain dormant in specific sensory root of specific cranial nerve
- these dormant viral vesicles can then reactivate in later life as shingles
Which modalities are essential to survival and how are they conducted?
- pain and temperature
- some touch and pressure
- carried via thin, poorly myelinated or unmyelinated fibres
- conduction slow
Which modalities increase detail and how are they conducted?
- discriminative touch
- vibration
- proprioception
- carried via large diameter, heavily myelinated fibres
- fast conduction
What does ipsilateral mean?
occurring at same side of body
Explain the 3 neuron chain
- 1st neuron:
- pseudounipolar
- brings information from the receptor
- cell bodies located in the dorsal root ganglion - 2nd neuron:
- at the level of the spinal cord, the 1st neuron makes contact with the 2nd neuron
- the axon of the 2nd neuron crosses the midline and travels to the ventroposterior nuclei in the thalamus on the opposite side - 3rd neuron
- relays information from thalamus to primary sensory cortex
If information is coming from the body, where in the thalamus does it travel to?
VPL
If information is coming from the face, where in the thalamus does it travel to?
VPM
Which order neurones transfer info from the PNS to CNS and have their cell bodies in the peripheral ganglia?
first order neurone
Where do the cell bodies of 2nd order neurones reside?
CNS ipsilateral grey matter
Where do the cell bodies of 3rd order neurones reside?
in the thalamus
Explain the pathway in the spinothalamic tract? (5 steps)
- thin, slow fibre from receptor in periphery reaches 1st neurone with cell bodies in dorsal root ganglion
- sensory fibres enter the dorsal horn of the spinal cord by travelling through the Lissauer’s tract
- Fibres synapse with the 2nd order neurone in the dorsal grey horn
- crossing over of fibres of the 2nd order neurone occurs at the white ventral commissure
- 2nd order fibres ascend in spinothalamic tract to the opposite side of the thalamus
When fibres reach the thalamus, how are they organised?
somatotopically
- fibres containing information from the arm travel more medially
- fibres containing information from the legs travel more laterally
Which lamina is the substantial gelatinosa found in?
lamina II
Which modality is the substantia gelatinosa nucleus responsible for?
pain and temperature
Except from the substantia gelatinosa, which nuclei contain synapses from the spinothalamic tract?
- marginal zone (lamina I)
2. Nucleus proprius (lamina III and IV)
Why do different modalities travel through slightly different pathways? e.g different lamina
so we can differentiate whether the impulse is is pain, touch, pressure or temperature
At the level of the medulla, the spinothalamic tract changes name to what?
spinal lemniscus
Where in the post central gyrus are the fibres projected?
to the body region of the sensory homunculus
e.g if the fibres are coming from the hand, they will end in the hand region of the post central gyrus (somatotropin map)