Spinal trigeminal nucleus

Spinal trigeminal nucleus
The cranial nerve nuclei schematically represented; dorsal view. Motor nuclei in red; sensory in blue. (Trigeminal nerve nuclei are at "V".)
Horizontal section through the lower part of the pons showing the spinal trigeminal nucleus (#11).
Details
Latin	nucleus spinalis nervi trigemini
Identifiers
MeSH	A08.186.211.132.931.920
NeuroNames	ancil-1015266456
Dorlands /Elsevier	n_11/12583463
TA
TH	{{#property:P1694}}
TE	{{#property:P1693}}
FMA	{{#property:P1402}}
Anatomical terms of neuroanatomy [[[d:|edit on Wikidata]]]

The spinal trigeminal nucleus is a nucleus in the medulla that receives information about deep/crude touch, pain, and temperature from the ipsilateral face. In addition to the trigeminal nerve (CN V), the facial (CN VII), glossopharyngeal (CN IX), and vagus nerves (CN X) also convey pain information from their areas to the spinal trigeminal nucleus. Thus the spinal trigeminal nucleus receives input from cranial nerves V, VII, IX, and X.

The spinal nucleus is composed of three subnucleii: subnucleus oralis (pars oralis), subnucleus caudalis (pars caudalis), and subnucleus interpolaris (pars interpolaris). The subnucleus oralis is associated with the transmission of discriminative (fine) tactile sense from the orofacial region. The subnucleus interpolaris is also associated with the transmission of tactile sense, as well as dental pain, whereas the subnucleus caudalis is associated with the transmission of nociception and thermal sensations from the head.

This region is also denoted at sp5 in other neuroanatomical nomenclature.

This nucleus projects to the ventral posterior medial nucleus in the dorsal thalamus. In mice, this thalamic nucleus has significant amounts of expression of leptin receptors, NPY and GLP-1..

See also

• Trigeminal nerve nuclei