ReviewFrontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland)2022
History of Spinal Cord "Pain" Pathways Including the Pathways Not Taken.
Review in Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland), 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed.
- Article
- Fast-conducting mechanonociceptors uniquely engage reflexive and affective pain circuitry to drive protective responses.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- [Pain modulating systems and manual medicine].Orthopadie (Heidelberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Anatomical characterisation of somatostatin-expressing neurons belonging to the anterolateral system.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- At the Intersection of Pain and Sleep: a Roadmap for Preclinical Pain Research.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- The human spinothalamic tract: lessons from cordotomy.Brain communications · 2025Review
- Cordotomy for Intractable Cancer Pain: A Historical and Technical Narrative Review with Modern Perspectives.Stereotactic and functional neurosurgery · 2025Review
- Mirror-Image Pain Update: Complex Interactions Between Central and Peripheral Mechanisms.Molecular neurobiology · 2024Review
- The Locus Coeruleus in Chronic Pain.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- The functional and anatomical characterization of three spinal output pathways of the anterolateral tract.Cell reports · 2024Article
- A perspective: neuraxial therapeutics in pain management: now and future.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Neuroanatomy of the nociceptive system: From nociceptors to brain networks.International review of neurobiology · 2024Review
- Article
- The introduction and current status of the multidimensional model of pain neurobiology.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
Abstract
Traditional medical neuroanatomy/neurobiology textbooks teach that pain is generated by several ascending pathways that course in the anterolateral quadrant of the spinal cord, including the spinothalamic, spinoreticular and spinoparabrachial tracts. The textbooks also teach, building upon the mid-19th century report of Brown-Séquard, that unilateral cordotomy, namely section of the anterolateral quadrant, leads to contralateral loss of pain (and temperature). In many respects, however, this simple relationship has not held up. Most importantly, pain almost always returns after cordotomy, indicating that activation of these so-called "pain" pathways may be sufficient to generate pain, but they are not necessary. Indeed, Brown-Séquard, based on his own studies, eventually came to the same conclusion. But his new view of "pain" pathways was largely ignored, and certainly did not forestall Spiller and Martin's 1912 introduction of cordotomy to treat patients. This manuscript reviews the history of "pain" pathways that followed from the first description of the Brown-Séquard Syndrome and concludes with a discussion of multisynaptic spinal cord ascending circuits. The latter, in addition to the traditional oligosynaptic "pain" pathways, may be critical to the transmission of "pain" messages, not only in the intact spinal cord but also particularly after injury.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.