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| Trigeminal lemniscus | |
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| Details | |
| Identifiers | |
| Latin | lemniscus trigeminalis |
| NeuroNames | 1572 |
| TA98 | A14.1.05.310 A14.1.08.680 A14.1.06.208 |
| TA2 | 5862 |
| FMA | 84040 |
| Anatomical terms of neuroanatomy | |
Thetrigeminal lemniscus or thetrigeminothalamic tracts is asomatosensory tract containingsecond-order neuron fibers of thetrigeminal system. It consists of theventral anddorsal trigeminal tracts. Its second-order sensory axons convey tactile, pain, and temperature impulses from the skin of the face, themucous membranes of the nasal and oral cavities, and the eye, as well as proprioceptive information from the facial andmasticatory muscles.[1]
It terminates by synapsing withthird-order neurons in theventral posteromedial nucleus of thethalamus.[1]
This tract was historically considered a cephalic division of themedial lemniscus due to the close proximity of the two ascending tracts.[2] Like the medial lemniscus in thedorsal column-medial lemniscus pathway (DCML), that carries mechanosensory information from part of the head and the rest of the body, the trigeminal lemniscus carries mechanosensory information from the face.[1] However, the trigeminal lemniscus also carries pain and temperature sensations from the contralateral orofacial region, just as thespinothalamic tract carries these sensations from the contralateral body. Thus, the trigeminal lemniscus of the head is functionally analogous to both the DCML tracts and the spinothalamic tract of the body.
The trigeminal lemniscus contains two main divisions:
