Schematic shows primary somatosensory pathway that conveys fine discriminative touch, pressure, vibratory sensation, and conscious joint position sense. Axons project directly into the dorsal column system with a topographical organization (fasciculus gracilis for lower body and fasciculus cuneatus for upper body). Axons terminate, respectively, in the nucleus gracilis and nucleus cuneatus in the lower medulla. From here, the medial lemniscus originates. Initially, the fibers cross over and project to the ventral posterolateral (VPL) nucleus of the thalamus. Fibers originating from the VPL nucleus terminate topographically in the primary sensory cortex.