hi this tutorial is the third in the spinal Pathways series and in this video we will be discussing the spinothalamic tract the spinothalamic tract is the pathway which conveys the sensation of pain temperature and crude touch the pathway begins with nerve endings or receptors in the body sending information down the axon of a neuron these neurons are pseudo unipolar neurons with cell bodies in the dorsal root gangion just like the ones we saw in the dorsal column medeor liscus pathway now here's a slice of the spinal cord and here is L's forculus the spinothalamic tract enters the spinal cord and asend or descends one or two levels within L's piculus then it synapses onto a cell body in the dorsal Horn of the gry matter the dorsal horns are the back parts of the butterfly wings of the gray matter the axon from this neuron then Decat which you'll remember means to cross to the other side and then ascends via the spinothalamic facus this decstation is called the anterior white commisure it is also important in the corticospinal tract which we will discuss in the next tutorial these neurons here are located within the substantia gelatinosa or the nucleus proprius both of which are collections of cell bodies within the dorsal horn the spinothalamic tract then ascends through the brain stem and synapses onto the thalamus this is why the tract is called the spinothalamic tract because it ascends from the spinal cord to the thalamus the thalamus then sends projections to the post Central gyrus of the cortex this is the same part of the cortex to which the dorsal column medeor liscus pathway projected they both project to the post Central gyrus because they are both sensory parlays and the post Central gyus is the primary sensory area now I'll finish by reiterating that L's forculus is the route by which the spinothalamic tract ascends or descends one to two levels before synapsing to the spinal cord gry matter and likee the dorsal column medial liscus pathway this is a three neuron pathway the first is in the dorsal root ganglin the second is in the dorsal Horn of the spinal cord and the third is in the thalamus and that concludes this tutorial on the spinothalamic tract in the next video we will be discussing the cortico spinal tract which is the primary motor pathway if you've enjoyed this tutorial please help us produce more by making a donation at www.h handwritten tutorial.com