The ventral trigeminal tract, ventral trigeminothalamic tract, anterior trigeminal tract, or anterior trigeminothalamic tract, is a

tract Tract may refer to: Geography and real estate * Housing tract, an area of land that is subdivided into smaller individual lots * Land lot or tract, a section of land * Census tract, a geographic region defined for the purpose of taking a census ...

composed of second-order neuronal axons. These

afferent fiber Afferent nerve fibers are axons (nerve fibers) of sensory neurons that carry sensory information from sensory receptors to the central nervous system. Many afferent projections ''arrive'' at a particular brain region. In the peripheral nervou ...

s carry sensory information about discriminative and crude touch, conscious proprioception, pain, and temperature from the head, face, and oral cavity. The ventral trigeminal tract connects the two major components of the brainstem trigeminal complex – the principal, or main sensory nucleus and the

spinal trigeminal nucleus The spinal trigeminal nucleus is a nucleus in the medulla that receives information about deep/crude touch, pain, and temperature from the ipsilateral face. In addition to the trigeminal nerve (CN V), the facial (CN VII), glossopharyngeal (CN ...

, to the

ventral posteromedial nucleus The ventral posteromedial nucleus (VPM) is a nucleus within the ventral posterior nucleus of the thalamus and serves an analogous somatosensory relay role for the ascending trigeminothalamic tracts as its lateral neighbour the ventral posterolat ...

of the

thalamus The thalamus (: thalami; from Greek language, Greek Wikt:θάλαμος, θάλαμος, "chamber") is a large mass of gray matter on the lateral wall of the third ventricle forming the wikt:dorsal, dorsal part of the diencephalon (a division of ...

. The ventral trigeminal tract is also called the anterior

trigeminal lemniscus The trigeminal lemniscus or the trigeminothalamic tracts is a somatosensory tract containing second-order neuron fibers of the trigeminal system. It consists of the ventral and dorsal trigeminal tracts. Its second-order sensory axons convey ta ...

Structure

The

first-order neuron In mathematics and other formal sciences, first-order or first order most often means either: * "linear" (a polynomial of degree at most one), as in first-order approximation and other calculus uses, where it is contrasted with "polynomials of high ...

s from the

trigeminal ganglion The trigeminal ganglion (also known as: Gasserian ganglion, semilunar ganglion, or Gasser's ganglion) is the sensory ganglion of each trigeminal nerve (CN V). The trigeminal ganglion is located within the trigeminal cave (Meckel's cave), a cav ...

enter the pons and synapse in the principal (chief sensory) nucleus or

. Axons of the second-order neurons cross the midline and terminate in the

of the contralateral

(as opposed to the

ventral posterolateral nucleus The ventral posterolateral nucleus (VPL) is one of the subdivisions of the ventral posterior nucleus in the ventral nuclear group of the thalamus. It relays sensory information from the second-order neurons of the neospinothalamic tract and me ...

, as in the dorsal column medial lemniscus (DCML) system). The third order neuron in the thalamus then connects to the

sensory cortex The sensory cortex can refer sometimes to the primary somatosensory cortex, or it can be used as a term for the primary and secondary cortices of the different senses (two cortices each, on left and right hemisphere): the visual cortex on the occ ...

of the

postcentral gyrus In neuroanatomy, the postcentral gyrus is a prominent gyrus in the lateral parietal lobe of the human brain. It is the location of the primary somatosensory cortex, the main sensory receptive area for the sense of touch. Like other sensory area ...

References

Sources

* Anthoney, T. R. (1993). Neuroanatomy and the neurologic exam: a thesaurus of synonyms, similar-sounding non-synonyms, and terms of variable meaning. CRC Press. * Norton, N. S. (2016). ''Netter's head and neck anatomy for dentistry''. Elsevier Health Sciences. .

External links

Trigeminothalamic tracts (Netter image)
* * http://www.medilexicon.com/medicaldictionary.php?t=48738 {{Authority control Thalamic connections Trigeminal nerve

Structure

See also

References

Sources

External links