Position and vibration sensations: functions of the dorsal spinocerebellar tracts?

Clinical evidence is presented which establishes for the first time that position and vibration sensations may be carried in the dorsal spinocerebellar tracts. We present a patient who incurred a spinal cord infarction eight months prior to death that caused a Brown-Séquard syndrome with loss of position and vibration senses in the right lower extremity. The infarction spared the right fasciculus gracilis and thus supports the recent observations in human beings (and animals) that conscious proprioception is not a function of the dorsal columns. The vibratory and position losses were best correlated with the portion of the lesion involving the right dorsal spinocerebellar tract. Arguments are furnished based on physiological experiments in animals that conscious proprioception may be carried by Morin's spinocervicothalamic pathway, which forms part of the dorsal spinocerebellar tract in the spinal cord.