The VPM receives second-order taste special visceral afferents from the solitary nucleus.[4] These synapse in the medial-most portion of the VPM,[5] which is sometimes referred to as the accessory arcuate nucleus.[6]
The VPM likely also receives some general visceral afferents from the solitary tract conveying non-nociceptive visceral conscious sensations.[7]
Subareas
VPMpc
The VPMpc is the parvicellular part of the ventral posteromedial nucleus. The VPMpc receives ipsilateral projection inputs from the medial parabrachial nucleus, the "gustatory responsive waist region" of the parabrachial nucleus (which has inputs from the solitary nucleus). The axons of these VPMpc relay neurons make synapses with neurons in all layers of the gustatory cortex.[8]
The VPMpc is argued by some as not actually a part of the VPM, because it does not project to the somatosensory cortex as the remainder of the VPM does, and therefore should be called the basal ventromedial (or ventral medial) nucleus (VMb) instead.[9][10] However, later authors have retained the VPMpc abbreviation, meaning the parvicellular part of the VPM.[11][12]
^ abPatestas, Maria A.; Gartner, Leslie P. (2016). A Textbook of Neuroanatomy (2nd ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell. p. 473. ISBN978-1-118-67746-9.
^Hall, Michael E.; Hall, John E. (2021). Guyton and Hall textbook of medical physiology (14th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier. p. 678. ISBN978-0-323-59712-8.
^Kiernan, John A.; Rajakumar, Nagalingam (2013). Barr's The Human Nervous System: An Anatomical Viewpoint (10th ed.). Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. p. 137. ISBN978-1-4511-7327-7.
^Courtiol, Emmanuelle; Maffei, Arianna; Fontanini, Alfredo (2024). "Thalamocortical contributions to chemical senses". In Usrey, W. Martin; Sherman, S. Murray (eds.). The cerebral cortex and thalamus. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 300–302. ISBN978-0-19-767615-8.
^Craig, A.D. (2002). "How do you feel? Interoception: the sense of the physiological condition of the body". Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 3 (8): 655–666. doi:10.1038/nrn894. PMID12154366. S2CID17829407.