Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tuebingen, Germany.
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Commun Biol. 2022 Nov 4;5(1):1187. doi: 10.1038/s42003-022-04126-w.
Almost all functional processing in the cortex strongly depends on thalamic interactions. However, in terms of functional interactions with the cerebral cortex, the human thalamus nuclei still partly constitute a terra incognita. Hence, for a deeper understanding of thalamic-cortical cooperation, it is essential to know how the different thalamic nuclei are associated with cortical networks. The present work examines network-specific connectivity and task-related topical mapping of cortical areas with the thalamus. The study finds that the relay and higher-order thalamic nuclei show an intertwined functional association with different cortical networks. In addition, the study indicates that relay-specific thalamic nuclei are not only involved with relay-specific behavior but also in higher-order functions. The study enriches our understanding of interactions between large-scale cortical networks and the thalamus, which may interest a broader audience in neuroscience and clinical research.
皮质中的几乎所有功能处理都强烈依赖于丘脑的相互作用。然而，就与大脑皮层的功能相互作用而言，人类丘脑核仍然在一定程度上是未知领域。因此，为了更深入地了解丘脑皮质的合作，了解不同的丘脑核与皮质网络的关联是至关重要的。本工作研究了与丘脑的皮质网络特定的连接和与任务相关的皮质区域的主题映射。研究发现，中继和高级丘脑核与不同的皮质网络之间存在着交织的功能关联。此外，研究还表明，中继特异性丘脑核不仅参与中继特异性行为，还参与高级功能。该研究丰富了我们对大尺度皮质网络和丘脑之间相互作用的理解，这可能会引起神经科学和临床研究领域更广泛的兴趣。
