Brain and Mind Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA.
Nat Rev Neurosci. 2023 Jul;24(7):416-430. doi: 10.1038/s41583-023-00701-0. Epub 2023 May 26.
The thalamus is a small, bilateral structure in the diencephalon that integrates signals from many areas of the CNS. This critical anatomical position allows the thalamus to influence whole-brain activity and adaptive behaviour. However, traditional research paradigms have struggled to attribute specific functions to the thalamus, and it has remained understudied in the human neuroimaging literature. Recent advances in analytical techniques and increased accessibility to large, high-quality data sets have brought forth a series of studies and findings that (re-)establish the thalamus as a core region of interest in human cognitive neuroscience, a field that otherwise remains cortico-centric. In this Perspective, we argue that using whole-brain neuroimaging approaches to investigate the thalamus and its interaction with the rest of the brain is key for understanding systems-level control of information processing. To this end, we highlight the role of the thalamus in shaping a range of functional signatures, including evoked activity, interregional connectivity, network topology and neuronal variability, both at rest and during the performance of cognitive tasks.
丘脑是大脑半球内部一对较小的卵圆形灰质团块，位于间脑背侧部，属于基底神经节。它整合来自中枢神经系统多个区域的信号。这种关键的解剖位置使丘脑能够影响整个大脑的活动和适应性行为。然而，传统的研究范式一直难以将特定的功能归因于丘脑，并且在人类神经影像学文献中对其研究仍然不足。分析技术的最新进展和对大型高质量数据集的可及性的提高带来了一系列的研究和发现，这些研究和发现（重新）确立了丘脑作为人类认知神经科学核心关注点的地位，而认知神经科学领域仍然以皮质为中心。在这篇观点文章中，我们认为，使用全脑神经影像学方法来研究丘脑及其与大脑其他部分的相互作用，对于理解信息处理的系统级控制至关重要。为此，我们强调了丘脑在塑造一系列功能特征方面的作用，包括在静息状态和执行认知任务时的诱发电活动、区域间连接、网络拓扑和神经元变异性。
