This paper first reviews the anatomical, pathological, and neuropsychological evidence implicating the anterior thalamic nuclei in memory processes. It is concluded that there is much indirect evidence indicating that anterior thalamic dysfunction is an important factor in anterograde amnesia. More direct evidence for the involvement of the anterior thalamic nuclei in memory processes emerges f...

Segmentation of the thalamus and thalamic nuclei is useful to quantify volumetric changes from neurodegenerative diseases. Most thalamus segmentation algorithms only use T1-weighted magnetic resonance images and current thalamic parcellation methods require manual interaction. Smaller nuclei, such as the lateral and medial geniculates, are challenging to locate due to their small size. We propo...

To understand the principles of operation of the striatum it is critical to elucidate the properties of the main excitatory inputs from cortex and thalamus, as well as their ability to activate the main neurons of the striatum, the medium spiny neurons (MSNs). As the thalamostriatal projection is heterogeneous, we set out to isolate and study the thalamic afferent inputs to MSNs using small loc...

Studies to date have identified only a few proteins that are expressed in a segment-specific manner within the mammalian brain. Here we report that a nonreceptor protein tyrosine phosphatase, PTPH1, is selectively expressed in the adult thalamus. Expression of PTPH1 mRNA is detected in most, but not all, thalamic nuclei. Nuclei that are derived embryonically from the dorsal thalamus and project...

Damage involving the anterior thalamic and adjacent rostral thalamic nuclei may result in a severe anterograde amnesia, similar to the amnesia resulting from damage to the hippocampal formation. Little is known, however, about the information represented in these nuclei. To redress this deficit, we recorded units in three rostral thalamic nuclei in freely-moving rats [the parataenial nucleus (P...

It has been recently shown that thalamic nuclei can be automatically segmented using diffusion tensor images (DTI) under the assumption that principal fiber orientation is similar within a given nucleus and distinct between adjacent nuclei. Validation of these methods, however, is challenging because manual delineation is hard to carry out due to the lack of images showing contrast between the ...

Lin Shi1,2 and Jian-Guo Zhang1-3* 1Department of Neurosurgery, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China 2Functional Neurosurgery Laboratory, Beijing Neurosurgical Institute, Beijing, China 3Beijing Key Laboratory of Neurostimulation, Beijing, 100050, China *Corresponding author: Jian-Guo Zhang, Beijing Neurosurgical Institute, Tiantan West No. 6, Dongcheng District, ...

Central post-stroke pain of thalamic origin is an extremely distressing and often refractory disorder. There are no well-established predictors for pain development after thalamic stroke, and the role of different thalamic nuclei is unclear. Here, we used structural magnetic resonance imaging to identify the thalamic nuclei, specifically implicated in the generation of central post-stroke pain ...

Our knowledge of thalamus function comes largely from anatomical studies showing, for example, that the ventroanterior (VA) and ventrolateral (VL) nuclei are connected to "motor" regions, whereas the mediodorsal (MD) nucleus is connected to prefrontal "executive" regions. Interestingly, Kunimatsu and Tanaka recently showed that preparatory signals for antisaccades (a motor response requiring ex...

Explaining the nature and mechanisms of conscious experience in neurobiological terms seems to be an attainable, if yet unattained, goal. Research at many levels is important, including research at the cellular level that explores the role of recurrent pathways between thalamic nuclei and the cortex, and research that explores consciousness from the perspective of action. Conceptually, a cleare...