The Location of the Thalamic Relay in the Spino‐Cervico‐Lemniscal Path

Landgren, S., A. Nordwall and C. Wengstrom. The location of the thalamic relay in the spinocervico-lemniscal path. Acta physiol. scand. 1965. 65. 164–175. — Cats anesthetized with nembutal were used. The dorsal half of the lateral funicle and the dorsal columns at L1 as well as the superficial radial nerve were dissected. The cerebellum was removed. Focal potentials and action potentials of single units were recorded in the contralateral thalamus in response to electrical stimulation of the three inputs. Ipsilateral hemisection rostral to C1 did not abolish the response to stimulation of the dorsolateral funicle. It was therefore concluded that this response was evoked via the spino-cervico-lemniscal path. It was shown that the thalamic relay of this path was located in a border zone within n. centralis postero- lateralis. This zone covered the rostral pole, the dorsal, lateral and ventro-lateral aspect of the nucleus and surrounded like a shell the somatotopically organized hindlimb region dominated by the dorsal column response. Convergence between the spino-cervico-lemniscal. the dorsal-column-lemniscal and the superficial radial paths was a characteristic feature of the border zone. In a population of 62 thalamic units, isolated in the zone of convergence, 20 units were discharged only via the spinocervico-lemniscal path. Out of the remaining units 31 were discharged by two or by all three of the stimulated paths.

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