The impact of the human thalamus on brain-wide information processing

Shine, James M.; Lewis, Laurie; Garrett, Douglas D.; Hwang, Kai

doi:10.1038/s41583-023-00701-0

Cited by 76 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 177 publications

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“…In the anatomical view, the medial group of thalamic nuclei, including MD, extensively connected with PFC 32,33 , which has been considered as a key node in consciousness perception 19,34 . Meanwhile, the intralaminar nucleus, including CM and Pf, were found to connect with more brain areas, including the cortical areas, such as frontal, parietal, cingulate cortex, medial temporal lobe and occipital lobe; and subcortical areas, such as striatum and cerebellum 13,14 . In contrast, anatomical connections of the ventral and ventrolateral thalamic nuclei are mainly confined to the motor network including basal ganglia, cerebellum and motor cortex 28 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the identified NCCs are exclusively confined to the cerebral cortex, but largely overlooked in the subcortical structures. As emerging evidence indicated the direct involvement of subcortical structures in complex cognitive process 10–13 , it is necessary to explore whether the NCC exists in the subcortical structures and subcortical-cortical loops.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, given that the great heterogeneity across thalamic nuclei 12,13,23 , it is necessary to identify the respective role of different thalamic nuclei in conscious awareness. Furthermore, considering the extensive bidirectional projection between thalamic nuclei and the cerebral cortex 13 , how the thalamocortical interactions contribute to the emergence of conscious awareness is also an attractive question. However, due to the deep anatomical location of the thalamus, probing the thalamic activity in nuclei level via conventional non-invasive techniques, e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Human intralaminar and medial thalamic nuclei transiently gate conscious perception through the thalamocortical loop

Fang,

Dang,

Ping

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Human high-order thalamic nuclei have been known to closely correlate with conscious states. However, given the great difference of conscious states and contents (conscious perception), it is nearly unknown how those thalamic nuclei and thalamocortical interactions directly contribute to the transient process of conscious perception. To address this question, we simultaneously recorded local field potentials (LFP) in the human intralaminar, medial and ventral thalamic nuclei as well as in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), while patients with implanted electrodes performing a visual consciousness task. Overall, compared to the ventral nuclei, intralaminar and medial nuclei showed earlier and stronger consciousness-related activity. Moreover, the transient thalamocortical neural synchrony and cross-frequency coupling were both driven by the theta phase of the intralaminar and medial nuclei during conscious perception. These results indicated that the intralaminar and medial thalamic nuclei, rather than the commonly believed PFC, play a decisive gate role in conscious perception.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Human intralaminar and medial thalamic nuclei transiently gate conscious perception through the thalamocortical loop

Fang,

Dang,

Ping

et al. 2024

Preprint

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“…As part of the diencephalon, the human thalamus is a bilateral grey matter structure that orchestrates whole-brain activity (Shine et al, 2023). Due to its extensive connections to the entire cerebral cortex, and subcortical structures such as the basal ganglia and the cerebellum, the thalamus can be characterized as a ‘connector hub’ region in the brain.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Multimodal Characterization of Low-Dimensional Thalamocortical Structural Connectivity Patterns

John,

Hettwer,

Schaare

et al. 2024

Preprint

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The human thalamus is a bilateral and heterogeneous grey matter structure that plays a crucial role in coordinating whole-brain activity. Investigations of its complex structural and functional internal organization revealed to a certain degree overlapping parcellations, however, a consensus on thalamic subnuclei boundaries remains absent. Recent work suggests that thalamic organization might additionally reflect continuous axes transcending nuclear boundaries. In this study, we used a multimodal approach to uncover how low-dimensional axes that describe thalamic connectivity patterns to the cortex are related to internal thalamic microstructural features, functional connectivity, and structural covariance. We computed a thalamocortical structural connectome via probabilistic tractography on diffusion MRI and derived two main axes of thalamic organization. The principal thalamic gradient, extending from medial to lateral and differentiating between transmodal and unimodal nuclei, was related to intrathalamic myelin profiles, and patterns of functional connectivity, while the secondary axis showed correspondence to core-matrix cell type distributions. Lastly, exploring multimodal thalamocortical associations on a global scale, we observed that the medial-to-lateral gradient consistently differentiated limbic, frontoparietal, and default mode network nodes from dorsal and ventral attention networks across modalities. However, the link with sensory modalities varied. In sum, we show the coherence between lower dimensional patterns of thalamocortical structural connectivity and various modalities, shedding light on multiscale thalamic organization.

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“…The VIM, in comparison, is primarily involved in motor control functions such as planning, initiation, and execution of voluntary movements 30 . The VIM is the deep brain stimulation (DBS) target in Essential Tremor and tremor-predominant Parkinson's Disease (PD) [31][32][33][34][35] . A case report from a patient with longstanding bilateral upper extremity loss undergoing DBS suggested plasticity of VIM neurons, leading to an over-representation of shoulder movements 36 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disuse-driven plasticity in the human thalamus and putamen

Chauvin,

Newbold,

Nielsen

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical loops have been heavily studied because of their importance in movement disorders such as Parkinson’s Disease and tremor. Capturing plasticity effect in this circuit has been mainly successful using animals or using invasive electrophysiology in patients. Given the importance of the striatum and thalamus for motor control and skill learning, the current study leverages on an arm immobilization paradigm in humans with neuroimaging to induce disuse and explore human subcortical motor circuits plasticity. We employed an experimental paradigm involving upper-extremity immobilization for two weeks with daily resting-state functional connectivity (FC) and motor task-related fMRI. This approach of dense sampling of individuals, i.e Precision Functional Mapping (PFM), offers individual-specific insights and provides enough data to address the issue of low signal to noise ratio in the subcortex. Previously, we identified increased FC between somatomotor cortex and the cingulo-opercular network and emergence of disuse pulses in the cortex during casting. We expand our prior investigation to include analysis adapted to the signal characteristic of subcortical regions to capture disuse-driven plasticity in human subcortical circuits. Subcortical nodes, particularly the central thalamus and posterior putamen, exhibited strengthened FC during disuse and spontaneous activity pulses. Motor task fMRI validated that subcortical disuse-driven plasticity effects spatially correspond to the upper extremity movement execution circuitry, emphasizing the role of these structures in motor control and adaptation. In conclusion, our study highlights the involvement of the cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical loops in human motor plasticity and discuss similarities in findings with two research fields: Parkinson Disease (PD), suggesting a novel interpretation of PD neuroimaging finding; and sleep, particularly plasticity and sleep pressure regulated by the thalamus.

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The impact of the human thalamus on brain-wide information processing

Cited by 76 publications

References 177 publications

Human intralaminar and medial thalamic nuclei transiently gate conscious perception through the thalamocortical loop

Human intralaminar and medial thalamic nuclei transiently gate conscious perception through the thalamocortical loop

A Multimodal Characterization of Low-Dimensional Thalamocortical Structural Connectivity Patterns

Disuse-driven plasticity in the human thalamus and putamen

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