Hodge C J, Apkarian A V
Department of Neurosurgery, SUNY Health Science Center, Syracuse.
Crit Rev Neurobiol. 1990;5(4):363-97.
The spinothalamic tract (STT) is made up of axons, originating from neurons in the spinal cord grey matter, which cross segmentally and then ascend to terminate in a variety of thalamic nuclei. The cells of origin of the STT are located throughout the spinal cord in three functional groups. Those located in lamina 1 of the spinal cord have small receptive fields and respond maximally to noxious peripheral stimulation. Those located in spinal cord laminae 4-6 have somewhat larger receptive fields and respond most commonly to both innocuous and noxious stimuli. The group originating in laminae 7-10 have large, frequently bilateral receptive fields and respond to a wide variety of cutaneous and deep stimuli. The largest concentration of STT neurons is found in the upper cervical spinal cord. The terminations of the STT in the thalamus include the lateral sensory thalamus, the intralaminar nuclei (primarily the centrolateral nucleus), and some of the medial nuclei (most prominently the medial dorsal nucleus). The cells located in laminae 1-6 project primarily to the lateral thalamus while the deeper STT neurons project primarily to the intralaminar and medial thalamus. An unique projection of lamina 1 cells to the nucleus submedius has been described. We hypothesize that the deep cells are related to many of the aversive aspects of pain while the more superficial STT cells are related to the sensory-discriminative aspects of pain.
脊髓丘脑束（STT）由源自脊髓灰质神经元的轴突组成，这些轴突进行节段交叉，然后上行并终止于各种丘脑核团。STT的起源细胞在脊髓中分布于三个功能组。位于脊髓第1板层的细胞具有小的感受野，对有害的外周刺激反应最大。位于脊髓第4 - 6板层的细胞具有稍大的感受野，最常见的是对无害和有害刺激均有反应。起源于第7 - 10板层的细胞组具有大的、常为双侧的感受野，对多种皮肤和深部刺激有反应。STT神经元的最大集中区域位于颈上段脊髓。STT在丘脑的终止部位包括外侧感觉丘脑、板内核（主要是中央外侧核）以及一些内侧核（最突出的是内侧背核）。位于第1 - 6板层的细胞主要投射到外侧丘脑，而较深层的STT神经元主要投射到板内核和内侧丘脑。已经描述了第1板层细胞向中介核的独特投射。我们假设较深层的细胞与疼痛的许多厌恶方面有关，而较浅层的STT细胞与疼痛的感觉辨别方面有关。
