In all cases, regardless of the level of the injections, terminal fibers were consistently distributed in three main locations: the submedial nucleus; the ventral aspect of the basal ventral medial nucleus and ventral posterior nuclei; and, the dorsomedial aspect of the ventral posterior medial nucleus. 
Further, thermoreceptive cells projected medially within vVP (including the basal ventral medial nucleus), while nociceptive cells projected both medially and more laterally, and the ascending axons of thermoreceptive cells were concentrated in the medial mesencephalon, while the axons of nociceptive cells ascended in the lateral mesencephalon. These results support evidence indicating that the ventral aspect of the basal ventral medial nucleus is important for thermosensory behavior in cats, consistent with the view that this region is a primordial homologue of the posterior ventral medial nucleus in primates..
They were aimed at one or more of the three main target areas of thermoreceptive-specific lamina I spinothalamic neurons [ i.e., the nucleus submedius, the dorsomedial aspect of the ventral posterior medial nucleus, and the ventral aspect of the basal ventral medial nucleus (vVMb)], following microelectrode mapping of somatosensory thalamus.
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