Spinothalamic tract

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Spinothalamic tract
Diagram showing the anterior and lateral spinothalamic tracts within the spinal cord -
Details
Part of	Spinal cord
System	Somatosensory system
Decussation	Anterior white commissure
Parts	Anterior and lateral tracts
From	Skin
To	Thalamus
Artery	Anterior spinal artery
Function	Gross touch and temperature
Identifiers
Latin	tractus spinothalamicus
MeSH	D013133
NeuroNames	2058, 810
TA98	A14.1.04.138
TA2	6102
FMA	72644
Anatomical terms of neuroanatomy [edit on Wikidata]

The spinothalamic tract is a nerve tract in the anterolateral system in the spinal cord.^[1] This tract is an ascending sensory pathway to the thalamus. From the ventral posterolateral nucleus in the thalamus, sensory information is relayed upward to the somatosensory cortex of the postcentral gyrus.

The spinothalamic tract consists of two adjacent pathways: anterior and lateral. The anterior spinothalamic tract carries information about crude touch. The lateral spinothalamic tract conveys pain and temperature.^[2]

In the spinal cord, the spinothalamic tract has somatotopic organization. This is the segmental organization of its cervical, thoracic, lumbar, and sacral components, which is arranged from most medial to most lateral respectively.

The pathway crosses over (decussates) at the level of the spinal cord, rather than in the brainstem like the dorsal column-medial lemniscus pathway and lateral corticospinal tract. It is one of the three tracts which make up the anterolateral system: anterior and lateral spinothalamic tract, spinotectal tract, spinoreticular tract.