- Pathway & key concepts
- Animation
- Labelling exercise
Trigeminal sensory pathway > route to the cortex
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This diagram depicts the trigeminal sensory inputs into the three main parts of the trigeminal sensory nucleus. Also shown are the connections from this nucleus to the somatosensory cortex via the thalamus.
KEY CONCEPTS:
- The trigeminal sensory nucleus is a continuation of the dorsal horn grey matter of the spinal cord, but specialised for head sensation.
- The nucleus has 3 parts, each with distinctive sensory functions.
- The trigeminal pathway to the cortex:
- is a three neuron chain, like that of spinal sensory pathways.
- has a synapse in the medial ventro-posterior nucleus (VPM) instead of VPL.
- projects to the ventro-medial part of the somatosensory cortex (see the homunculus).
Trigeminal sensory pathway > route to the cortex
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