pathways, nerves, cortex

Noxious stimuli to the brain

come into dorsal horn ad immediately synapses, then secondary axon crosses the synapse and ascends through brain stem to the thalamus and then to the cortex.
Neruotransmitters: Glutamate and substance

PAG and pain

PAG -> pons -> dorsal horn (enough infor can block ascending message so that you dont receive pain)

Touch info to the brain

Ipsalateral until the spinal cord
up the spinal cord
brainstem
thamalums
cortex

Gate Theory of Pain Pathway

small nerve fibers (pain receptors) and large nerve fibers (normal receptors) synapse on projection cells (P), which go up the spinothalamic tract to the brain and inhibitory internerurons (I) within the dorsal horn

Vagus Nerve (CN X)

smallest contribution only gets the very back of the throat (used to perceive fats)

Glossopharyngeal Nerve (CN IX)

back 1/3 of the tongue

Chorda Tymapni Nerve (CN VII)

front 2/3 of the tongue

Trigeminal nerve

carries somatosensory information to the brain (whole fat molecules activate the nerve in the mouth)

Olfactory nerve (CN I)

carries smell to the brain

Pathway of the Olfactory receptor cells

axons go thru the cribiform place and end in olfactory bulb
ipsilateral projection all the way to the cortex
all of these axons together create the olfactory nerve

Cingulate cortex

focuses on the emotional aspects of pain
sits right on top of the corpus collosum

prefrontal cortex

important in memory and understanding the consequences of our actions, executive functioning, and working memory

insular cortex

primary taste cortex

orbitofrontal cortex

part of the prefrontal cortex, association cortex; cells are multimodal
taste information gets together with temp, touch, smell, taste,
good for flavor