PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Hong, J.H.
AU  - Kwon, H.G.
AU  - Jang, S.H.
TI  - Probabilistic Somatotopy of the Spinothalamic Pathway at the Ventroposterolateral Nucleus of the Thalamus in the Human Brain
AID  - 10.3174/ajnr.A2497
DP  - 2011 Aug 01
TA  - American Journal of Neuroradiology
PG  - 1358--1362
VI  - 32
IP  - 7
4099  - http://www.ajnr.org/content/32/7/1358.short
4100  - http://www.ajnr.org/content/32/7/1358.full
SO  - Am. J. Neuroradiol.2011 Aug 01; 32
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The STP has been regarded as the most plausible neural tract responsible for pathogenesis of central poststroke pain. The VPL nucleus has been a target for neurosurgical procedures for control of central poststroke pain. However, to our knowledge, no DTI studies have been conducted to investigate the somatotopic location of the STP at the VPL nucleus of the thalamus. In the current study, we attempted to investigate this location in the human brain by using a probabilistic tractography technique of DTI. MATERIALS AND METHODS: DTI was performed at 1.5T by using a Synergy-L SENSE head coil. STPs for both the hand and leg were obtained by selection of fibers passing through 2 regions of interest (the area of the spinothalamic tract in the posterolateral medulla and the postcentral gyrus) for 41 healthy volunteers. Somatotopic mapping was obtained from the highest probabilistic location at the ACPC level. RESULTS: The highest probabilistic locations for the hand and leg were an average of 16.86 and 16.37 mm lateral to the ACPC line and 7.53 and 8.71 mm posterior to the midpoint of the ACPC line, respectively. Somatotopic locations for the hand and leg were different in the anteroposterior direction (P < .05); however, no difference was observed in the mediolateral direction (P > .05). CONCLUSIONS: We found the somatotopic locations for hand and leg of the STP at the VPL nucleus; these somatotopies were arranged in the anteroposterior direction. ACPCanterior/posterior commissureDTIdiffusion tensor imagingDTTdiffusion tensor tractographyFMRIBFunctional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the BrainSENSEsensitivity encodingSTPspinothalamocortical pathwayVPLventroposterolateral