This tract was historically considered a cephalic division of the medial lemniscus due to the close proximity of the two ascending tracts.[2] Like the medial lemniscus in the dorsal column-medial lemniscus pathway (DCML), that carries mechanosensory information from part of the head and the rest of the body, the trigeminal lemniscus carries mechanosensory information from the face.[1] However, the trigeminal lemniscus also carries pain and temperature sensations from the contralateral orofacial region, just as the spinothalamic tract carries these sensations from the contralateral body. Thus, the trigeminal lemniscus of the head is functionally analogous to both the DCML tracts and the spinothalamic tract of the body.
Divisions
The trigeminal lemniscus contains two main divisions:
^ abcPurves, Dale; Augustine, George J.; Fitzpatrick, David; Katz, Lawrence C.; LaMantia, Anthony-Samuel; McNamara, James O.; Williams, S. Mark (2001). "The Trigeminal Portion of the Mechanosensory System". Neuroscience. 2nd edition. Sinauer Associates. Retrieved 11 August 2024.
^Anthoney, TR (1993). Neuroanatomy and the neurologic exam: a thesaurus of synonyms, similar-sounding non-synonyms, and terms of variable meaning. CRC Press.
Sources
Anthoney, T. R. (1993). Neuroanatomy and the neurologic exam: a thesaurus of synonyms, similar-sounding non-synonyms, and terms of variable meaning.[1] CRC Press.
Snell, R. S. (2010). Clinical neuroanatomy. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Miller MW, Muller SJ. Structure and histogenesis of the principal sensory nucleus of the trigeminal nerve: effects of prenatal exposure to ethanol. J Comp Neurol. 1989;282:570–580
^Anthoney, T.R. (1993). Neuroanatomy and the neurologic exam: a thesaurus of synonyms, similar-sounding non-synonyms, and terms of variable meaning. CRC Press.
^Frost DO. Development of anomalous retinal projections to nonvisual thalamic nuclei in Syrian hamsters: a quantitative study. J Comp Neurol. 1986;252:95–105