Ventrolateral spinal cord afferents to the brain stem in the domestic pig

Abstract

Abstract The distribution and termination within the brain stem of nerve fiber systems which comprise the ventrolateral funiculus of the spinal cord were studied in the domestic pig. Guillery et al. ('61) modification of the Nauta‐Gygax technique for silver impregnation of degenerating nerve fibers was utilized in this study. It is concluded that a spinothalamic tract does exist in the domestic pig, but that it is secondary in prominence to a large spinoreticular fiber system. The distribution and terminations of fibers within the brain stem of the pig resemble the pattern described by Anderson and Berry ('59) for the cat.