Initial evaluation structures (IESs) currently proposed as the earliest detectors of affective stimuli (e.g., amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, or insula) are high-order (a) whose response latency cannot account for first visual cortex emotion-related (~80 ms), and (b) lack necessary infrastructure to locally analyze features that define emotional stimuli. Several thalamic accomplish both criteri...

Stereotyped sequences of neural activity underlie learned vocal behavior in songbirds; principle neurons in the cortical motor nucleus HVC fire in stereotyped sequences with millisecond precision across multiple renditions of a song. The geometry of neural connections underlying these sequences is not known in detail though feed-forward chains are commonly assumed in theoretical models of seque...

The thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) has been implicated in attentional processes based on its anatomical, electrophysiological, and neurochemical relationships with the sensory nuclei of the thalamus and corresponding sensory areas of cortex. This study examined the possibility that the TRN is involved in covert orienting of attention. Attention can be summoned to a spatial location in the abs...