While gathering equipment after an injection, a nurse accidentally received a prick from an improperly capped needle. To interpret this sensation, which of these areas must be intact?

A) Corticospinal tract, medulla, and basal ganglia
B) Pyramidal tract, hypothalamus, and sensory cortex
C) Lateral spinothalamic tract, thalamus, and sensory cortex
D) Anterior spinothalamic tract, basal ganglia, and sensory cortex

The spinothalamic tract contains sensory fibers that transmit the sensations of pain, temperature, and crude or light touch. Fibers carrying pain and temperature sensations ascend the lateral spinothalamic tract, whereas the sensations of crude touch form the anterior spinothalamic tract. At the thalamus, the fibers synapse with another sensory neuron, which carries the message to the sensory cortex for full interpretation. The other options are not correct.