Ascending and Descending Spinal Cord Tracts Made Easy

Excellent Health Digest

"...within the spinal cord, there are several different tracts grossly they are divided into ascending and descending tracts on the cross-section of the spinal cord these tracks make up the white matter named because of the whitish color that the myelin around the axon gives the gray matter is located centrally comprising the ventral and dorsal horns the ascending pathways are responsible for transporting information from the body these are sensory tracts we will color these tracks in blue and starting from the posterior column also known as the dorsal column we have the fasciculus Q8 and fasciculus gracilis these are responsible for fine touch or tactile sensation vibration and proprioception fasciculus gracilis lies medially to fasciculus CUNY waiters and the difference between the pathways is at signals from the lower limb generally below TC next travel in the fasciculus gracilis while signals from the Upper Limb generally T6 and above travel in the fasciculus CUNY aters you can remember this with the l in gracilis reminding you of legs or lower limbs these tracks run ipsilateral e through the spinal cord and decussate in the middle of the brain therefore a spinal cord injury will lead to loss of ipsilateral fine touch vibration and proprioceptive sensation next up we have the anterior spinal Salaam and the lateral spinothalamic Pathways the anterior spinal thalamic tract is responsible for crude touch and pressure while the lateral spinothalamic tract is responsible for pain and temperature in contrast to the dorsal column tracks the anthro a lateral Pathways decussate within the spinal cord and then travel up to the brain this means that a lesion of the spinal cord will generally cause a contralateral loss of crew touch pressure pain and temperature sensation this is not a 100% rule however I just nerves entering the anterolateral pathways typically a send one or two vertebral levels before they cross to the other side both the dorsal column and anthro lateral pathways are..."

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