A re-examination of the spino-reticulo-diencephalic pathway in the cat

One commonly accepted idea is that affective aspects of pain sensation are derived from a flow of information from the spinal cord through the reticular formation to the intralaminar thalamus and subthalamus. Little is known, however, about the extent to which spinoreticular terminations and reticulodiencephalic neuronal cell bodies overlap. This study used a combination of anterograde and retrograde tracing techniques to compare these distributions in the cat. Whereas spinoreticular terminations were concentrated caudally and laterally, neurons projecting to intralaminar thalamus and subthalamus were concentrated rostrally and medially. Thus, information conveyed from the spinal cord to the reticular formation appears to have direct access to intralaminar thalamus and subthalamus only by way of a few widely scattered neurons. When considered with the results of others, these results encourage less emphasis on a putative spino-reticulo-diencephalic pathway for pain. Rather, the reticular formation's role in pain is more likely to involve its full complement of interconnected descending and ascending connections.