Posterior thoracic nucleus - Brain - Brainstem - e-Anatomy
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Posterior thoracic nucleus

Nucleus thoracicus posterior

  • Synonym: Dorsal thoracic nucleus
  • Latin eponym: Nucleus Stillingi; Nucleus Clarkii
  • Eponym: Clarke’s column; Nucleus of Stilling-Clarke;
  • Related terms: Posterior thoracic nucleus; Dorsal thoracic nucleus

Definition

The posterior thoracic nucleus refers to an aggregation of neuronal cell bodies, which is situated in the base of posterior horn of spinal cord. The base-region corresponds with the lateral intermediate substance or the lamina VII, in the intermediate zone of the spinal cord.

The posterior thoracic nucleus is also known as the Dorsal nucleus of Clarke or the Clarke’s column. It extends from the C8 to L3/L4 segments of the spinal cord and receives subconscious proprioceptive information from muscle spindles and Golgi tendon organs. The axons from the cells in the Clarke’s column give rise to dorsal and ventral spinocerebellar tracts, which carry the subconscious proprioceptive information to the cerebellum.

References

Text written by Muhammad A. Javaid, MD, PhD © 2022 IMAIOS.

  • Snell, R.S. (2010). ‘Chapter 4: The Spinal Cord and the Ascending and Descending Tracts’, in Clinical Neuroanatomy. (7th ed.) Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, pp. 137-142.

  • Byrne, J.H. and Dafny, N. ‘Chapter 3: Anatomy of the Spinal Cord. [Content reviewed and revised 07 Oct 2020]. In Neuroanatomy Online, an open-access electronic laboratory for the neurosciences. McGovern Medical School at UTHealth; Accessed 2022 Oct 22. Available from: https://nba.uth.tmc.edu/neuroscience/m/s2/chapter03.html

  • Brown, A.G. (1982). Review article the dorsal horn of the spinal cord. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Physiology: Translation and Integration, 67(2), pp.193-212. https://doi.org/10.1113/expphysiol.1982.sp002630

  • Ganapathy, M.K., Reddy, V. and Tadi, P. Neuroanatomy, Spinal Cord Morphology. [Updated 2021 Oct 30]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2022 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK545206/

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