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Spinothalamic Tract Neurons, Visceral Input

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Encyclopedia of Pain

  • 231 Accesses

Synonyms

“Pain” pathway; Nociceptive Projecting Neurons; visceral pain; angina pectoris

Characteristics

Spinothalamic tract cells - Spinal cord processing

The spinothalamic tract originates from cells in the dorsal gray matter, ascends in the contralateral anterolateral funiculus and terminates in the thalamus. The dorsal and intermediate gray matter of the spinal dorsal is made up of cells serving as interneurons and as the origin of ascending pathways that transmit visceral information to areas of the brain processing sensory information and participating in pain perception (Fig. 1) (reviewed in Willis and Westlund 1997). Of the ascending pathways, the STT is the most studied system for transmitting visceral afferent information to the brain. Axons of STT cells generally cross over in the white commissure to the contralateral side within one or two segments and then ascend generally in the anterolateral quadrant. Recent studies, however, have shown that some axons remain on the...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK, USA

    Robert D. Foreman & Chao Qin

Authors
  1. Robert D. Foreman
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  2. Chao Qin
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Physiological Institute, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany

    Robert F. Schmidt

  2. Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, USA

    William D. Willis

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© 2007 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Foreman, R., Qin, C. (2007). Spinothalamic Tract Neurons, Visceral Input. In: Schmidt, R., Willis, W. (eds) Encyclopedia of Pain. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-29805-2_4178

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-29805-2_4178

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-43957-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-29805-2

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