A 35-year-old man presents with progressive painless burn injuries to his hands and wasting of intrinsic hand muscles. Examination reveals dissociated sensory loss in a cape-like distribution (loss of pain and temperature over shoulders and upper arms with preserved light touch and vibration), absent upper limb reflexes, and brisk lower limb reflexes with extensor plantars. Sagittal T2-weighted MRI of the cervical spine shows an elongated, well-defined CSF-intensity central cavity within the spinal cord extending from C2 to C7 (marked **A** in the diagram), with mild fusiform cord expansion. Concurrent imaging reveals peg-like cerebellar tonsils extending 8 mm below the foramen magnum. Which of the following best explains the dissociated sensory loss pattern observed in this patient?
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