MODULE 3

SUGGESTED READING

1) Neuroscience Online: an electronic textbook for the neurosciences. This is a free educational resource provided by the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston. It is really superb and we urge you to make use of it. The online version works fine on computers, but since visualization of the figures requires a flash player, they are absent when the material is viewed using an Ipad.
     Section 2, Chapter 2: Somatosensory Systems
          2.1 Somatic Stimuli
          2.2 Introduction to Peripheral Organization of Somatosensory Systems
          2.3 Sensory Transduction
          2.4 Somatosensory Receptor Types
          2.5 Proprioceptive Receptors
          2.6 Summary
    Section 2, Chapter 4: Somatosensory Pathways
          4.1 General Organization of Somatosensory Pathways
          4.2 Common Anatomical Features
          4.3 Peripheral Somatosensory Axons
          4.4 Somatotopic Organization
          4.5 Somatosensory Pathways
          4.6 Medial Lemniscus Pathway: Body Discriminative Touch and Proprioception
          4.7 Main Sensory Trigeminal Pathway: Face Discriminative Touch and Proprioception (We cover this in Module 4)
          4.8 Neospinothalamic Pathway: Body - Sharp Pricking Pain and Cool/Cold (We cover this in Module 4)
          4.9 Spinal Trigeminal Pathway: Face Pain, Temperature and Crude Touch
          4.10 Concluding Remarks

2) The Nervous System in Action by Michael D. Mann. Click on MANN TEXT to access the internet version of this excellent textbook. The home page provides links to individual chapters and also offers PDF links, making it easy to print copies of the text. You can view the material directly on your computer screen, but print out a copy if possible. The reason to do so is that we will refer to specific pages in the text, and these are not shown in the computer screen version. In Chapter 5 see the following:
    Chapter 5, Somesthesia - Peripheral Mechanisms
          Page 5-1 - the exteroceptors
          Page 5-3 - mechanical sensations
          Page 5-6 - receptive fields
          Page 5-18 - the enteroceptors
     Chapter 6, Somesthesia - Central Mechanisms
          Page 6-1 - somatosensory pathways
          Page 6-5 - dermatomes and somatotopic organization
          Page 6-12 - cerebral mechanisms of sensation

5) The Digital Anatomist. This is an excellent program developed by the Dept. Biological Structure, University of Washington, Seattle. It contains a huge library of views of the brain. We will refer to specific figures in many of our modules, including this one.

In print:

1) Neuroanatomy through Clinical Cases by Hal Blumenfeld.

----- Blumenfeld gives a brief overview of most neural systems in his Chapter 2, and then considers them in greater detail in a later chapter. His overview of the dorsal column-medial lemniscus (DC-ML) pathway is on pages 34 - 35 and in Figure 2.18.

----- The dorsal column-medial lemniscus system (remember, Blumenfeld calls it the posterior column-medial lemniscus pathway) is discussed in the first part of Chapter 7. Because the treatment is woven in with other aspects of sensory function it is difficult to give page reading assignments, but be certain to read the sections with the following headings:

• Anatomical and clinical review (page 264).
• Main Somatosensory pathways (pages 264-7).
• Posterior column-medial lemniscus pathway (pages 267-8).
• Somatosensory cortex (page 270).
• Also study Figure 7.1, Table 7.2, and Figure 7.3.

2) Clinical Neuroanatomy and Neuroscience by M. J. Turlough Fitzgerald, Gregory Gruener and Estomih Mtui. Fifth Edition. Aspects of the somatic sensory system are covered in several different sections of the book. We suggest you look at them in the following order:

• The DC-ML pathway - start at the section “Central terminations of posterior root afferents” at the bottom of page 182 and read through to page 186, stopping before the section “Spinothalamic pathway”
• The somatic sensory cortex - start on page 317 and continue through the discussion of the secondary somatic sensory area on page 320.
• Become familiar with Table 9.1 on page 114.
• (OPTIONAL) Box 3.1 on page 32 gives a summary view of the somatic sensory system. Figure 9.2 on page 112 shows the sensory (and motor) components of a spinal nerve. Read about muscle spindles and Golgi tendon organs starting on page 123 in Chapter 10. Read about sensory nerve endings (Pacinian corpuscles, etc.) in Chapter 11, starting on page 137

3) Fundamental Neuroscience for Basic and Clinical Applications by Duane E. Haines. Third Edition.

• The DC-ML pathway is covered in Chapter 17. Skip the sections at the end of the chapter, starting with the trigeminal system on pg. 272.

4) Principles of Neural Science by Eric R. Kandel, James H. Schwartz and Thomas M. Jessel. This text has a much more detailed treatment of this topic, but - as always - it is excellent and fun to read.

• Chapter 18, pages 338 - 345, but skip (if you like) the section on the thalamus, starting on page 341. This chapter focuses on the organization of sensory pathways at the level of the spinal cord
• Chapter 20, pages 386 - 391. These deal with the cortical analysis of sensory information.
• Chapter 22, pages 446 - 448. These sections deal most directly with the dorsal column-medial lemniscus system.
• Chapter 23. Further treatment of the cortical analysis of sensory (touch) information

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