Brain Pathways

Nigrostriatal Pathway

pathway where DA neuron axons send dopamine to caudate and putamen, for generating, maintaining, and initiating movements

Mesolimbic Pathway

‘reward’ pathway where DA neuron axons send dopamine to frontal cortex and nucleus accumbens for motivation, mood

Dorsal Stream

part of occipital lobe that carries information to parietal lobe: ‘Where is it?’

Ventral Stream 

part of occipital lobe that carries information to temporal lobe: ‘What is it?’

Dorsal Column Pathway

sends axon into dorsal horn of spinal cord to ipsilaterally ascend into brain, synapse in dorsal column, cross in brainstem, then ascend to thalamus for somatosensory

Spinothalamic System Pathway

axons cross in sacral spinal cord then ascend into thalamus for somatosensory 

Thalamic Touch Relay

pain and touch info that travels through the VPL and VPM thalamus before getting to somatosensory cortex

Descending Pain Modulation

spinothalamic tract sends axon to periaqueductal grey then to Raphe Nuclei where pain-sensing neurons in spinal cord are inhibited