The spinal trigeminal nucleus is a nucleus in the medulla that receives information about deep/crude

touch The somatosensory system, or somatic sensory system is a subset of the sensory nervous system. The main functions of the somatosensory system are the perception of external stimuli, the perception of internal stimuli, and the regulation of bo ...

pain Pain is a distressing feeling often caused by intense or damaging Stimulus (physiology), stimuli. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as "an unpleasant sense, sensory and emotional experience associated with, or res ...

, and

temperature Temperature is a physical quantity that quantitatively expresses the attribute of hotness or coldness. Temperature is measurement, measured with a thermometer. It reflects the average kinetic energy of the vibrating and colliding atoms making ...

from the ipsilateral face. In addition to the

trigeminal nerve In neuroanatomy, the trigeminal nerve (literal translation, lit. ''triplet'' nerve), also known as the fifth cranial nerve, cranial nerve V, or simply CN V, is a cranial nerve responsible for Sense, sensation in the face and motor functions ...

(CN V), the facial (CN VII), glossopharyngeal (CN IX), and

vagus nerve The vagus nerve, also known as the tenth cranial nerve (CN X), plays a crucial role in the autonomic nervous system, which is responsible for regulating involuntary functions within the human body. This nerve carries both sensory and motor fibe ...

s (CN X) also convey pain information from their areas to the spinal trigeminal nucleus.Brainstem Nuclei
Thus the spinal trigeminal nucleus receives afferents from

cranial nerves Cranial nerves are the nerves that emerge directly from the brain (including the brainstem), of which there are conventionally considered twelve pairs. Cranial nerves relay information between the brain and parts of the body, primarily to and f ...

V, VII, IX, and X.

Anatomy

Structure

The spinal nucleus is composed of three subnuclei: subnucleus oralis (pars oralis), subnucleus caudalis (pars caudalis), and subnucleus interpolaris (pars interpolaris). The subnucleus oralis is associated with the transmission of discriminative (fine) tactile sense from the orofacial region, and is continuous with the principal sensory nucleus of V. The subnucleus interpolaris is also associated with the transmission of tactile sense, as well as dental pain, whereas the subnucleus caudalis is associated with the transmission of

nociception In physiology, nociception , also nocioception; ) is the Somatosensory system, sensory nervous system's process of encoding Noxious stimulus, noxious stimuli. It deals with a series of events and processes required for an organism to receive a pai ...

and thermal sensations from the head. This region is also denoted at sp5 in other neuroanatomical nomenclature.

Efferents

This nucleus projects to the ventral posteriomedial (VPM) nucleus in the contralateral thalamus via the ventral trigeminal tract.

Relations

The nucleus is situated lateral to the nucleus of tractus solitarius.

References

Cranial nerve nuclei Medulla oblongata Facial nerve Glossopharyngeal nerve Trigeminal nerve Vagus nerve {{Neuroanatomy-stub

Anatomy

Structure

Efferents

Relations

See also

References