Spino-thalamic pathway > Spino-thalamic tract
- Also known as the antero-lateral tract
- Consists of axons of neurons situated in the dorsal (posterior) grey horns of the spinal cord.
- These neurons are second-order sensory neurons. They receive messages from first order sensory neurons whose cell bodies are in dorsal (posterior) root ganglia and their peripheral ends are specialised sensory detectors in various parts of the body.
- Spino-thalamic axons cross ventrally in the cord near their cell bodies then ascend on the opposite side in the lateral and ventral (anterior) white columns to the medulla, and thence to the thalamus.
- In the thalamus they synapse with neurons in the lateral ventro-posterior nucleus (VPL). The axons of these then pass through the internal capsule to the somatosensory cortex.
- Spino-thalamic axons carry sensory messages related to pain, temperature and crude (i.e. not discriminative) touch.
