Spinocervical tract

Fig. 4. Drawing of the spinal cord depicting pathways and neurons likely to use glutamate as a neurotransmitter. I = primary afferent fibers 2 = local-circuit neurons in the superficial dorsal horn 3 = corticospinal fibers 4 = bulbospinal input to the intermediolateral nucleus 5 = vestibulospinal input to the central cervical nucleus 6 = the spinocervical tract. For further details, see Section 3.2.

The spinocervical tract terminates before reaching the brainstem and will therefore be included in this section. Other somatosensory pathways will be included in the sections below. 

Kechagias S, Broman J (1994) Compartmentation of glutamate and glutamine in the lateral cervical nucleus further evidence for glutamate as a spinocervical tract neurotransmitter. J Comp Neurol 540 531-540. 

Maxwell DJ, Christie WM, Brown AG, Ottersen OP, Storm-Mathisen J (1992) Direct observations of synapses between L-glutamate-immunoreactive boutons and identified spinocervical tract neurones in the spinal cord of the cat. J Comp Neurol 326 485-500. 

Kechagias S, Broman J (1995) Immunocytochemical evidence for vesicular storage of glutamate in cat spinocervical and cervicothalamic tract terminals. Brain Res 675 316-320. 

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