The Rexed laminae comprise a system of ten layers of grey matter (I–X), identified in the early 1950s by

Bror Rexed Bror Anders Rexed (19 June 1914 – 21 August 2002) was a Swedish neuroscientist and professor at Uppsala University. Internationally, he is best known today for his development of the system now known as Rexed laminae, but in Sweden, he is als ...

to label portions of the grey columns of the

spinal cord The spinal cord is a long, thin, tubular structure made up of nervous tissue, which extends from the medulla oblongata in the brainstem to the lumbar region of the vertebral column (backbone). The backbone encloses the central canal of the spin ...

. Similar to Brodmann areas, they are defined by their cellular structure rather than by their location, but the location still remains reasonably consistent.

Laminae

Posterior grey column The posterior grey column (posterior cornu, dorsal horn, spinal dorsal horn, posterior horn, sensory horn) of the spinal cord is one of the three grey columns of the spinal cord. It receives several types of sensory information from the body, i ...

: I–VI ** Lamina I: marginal nucleus of spinal cord or posteromarginal nucleus ** Lamina II: substantia gelatinosa of Rolando ** Laminae III and IV:

nucleus proprius The nucleus proprius is a layer of the spinal cord adjacent to the substantia gelatinosa. The nucleus proprius can be found in the gray matter in all levels of the spinal cord. It constitutes the first synapse of the spinothalamic tract carrying ...

** Lamina V: Neck of the dorsal horn. Neurons within lamina V are mainly involved in processing sensory afferent stimuli from cutaneous, muscle and joint mechanical nociceptors as well as visceral nociceptors. This layer is home to wide dynamic range tract neurons, interneurons and propriospinal neurons. Viscerosomatic pain signal convergence often occurs in this lamina due to the presence of wide dynamic range tract neurons resulting in pain referral. ** Lamina VI: Base of the dorsal horn. No nociceptive input occurs here, instead this lamina receives input from large-diameter fibres innervating muscles and joints and from muscle spindles which are sensitive to innocuous joint movement and muscle stretch to feed forward this information to the cerebellum where it can modulate muscle tone accordingly. * Lateral grey column: VII and X ** Lamina VII: intermediomedial nucleus, intermediolateral nucleus,

posterior thoracic nucleus The posterior thoracic nucleus, (Clarke's column, column of Clarke, dorsal nucleus, nucleus dorsalis of Clarke) is a group of interneurons found in the medial part of lamina VII, also known as the intermediate zone, of the spinal cord. It is main ...

in the thoracic and upper lumbar region ** Lamina X: an area of grey matter surrounding the

central canal The central canal (also known as spinal foramen or ependymal canal) is the cerebrospinal fluid-filled space that runs through the spinal cord. The central canal lies below and is connected to the ventricular system of the brain, from which it ...

. * Anterior grey column: VIII–IX ** Lamina VIII: motor interneurons; Commissural nucleus ** Lamina IX: hypaxial (body wall muscles), lateral (in limb regions) and medial (back muscles) motor neurons, also phrenic and spinal accessory nuclei at cervical levels, and Onuf's nucleus in the sacral region

References

{{Authority control Spinal cord