School of Psychology, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China.
Neuroscience. 2024 Dec 6;562:125-134. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2024.10.034. Epub 2024 Oct 23.
The thalamus is crucial for supporting various cognitive behaviors due to its extensive connectivity with multiple cortical regions. However, the role of the thalamus and its functional connections with cortical regions in cognitive reasoning remains unclear, since previous research has mainly focused on cortical regions when studying the neural mechanisms underlying cognitive reasoning. To fill this knowledge gap, we utilized 7 T functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the activation patterns of the thalamus and its functional connections with cortical regions during cognitive reasoning task, while also examining how the complexity of reasoning tasks affects thalamic activation and functional connections with cortical regions. Our findings showed that cognitive reasoning processes are related to increased activation of the thalamus and its functional connections with a specific set of cortical regions, consisting of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, inferior frontal sulcus, intraparietal sulcus, anterior cingulate cortex/presupplementary motor area, precuneus, and ventral medial prefrontal cortex. Moreover, the increase in relational complexity of the reasoning tasks led to a corresponding increase in thalamic activation and functional connectivity with cortical regions. Given the complex thalamus structure, including multiple distinct nuclei exhibiting specific functional connections with particular cortical regions, we used an atlas defined thalamic subdivisions based on its structural connectivity with different cortical regions. Our findings indicated that these different thalamic subregions not only exhibited distinct connectivity patterns with specific cortical regions during performance of cognitive reasoning, but also showed distinct connectivity patterns varied with task complexity. Overall, our study presents evidence of the thalamus's role and its connections with cortical regions in supporting increasingly complex cognitive reasoning behavior, illuminating its contribution to higher-order cognitive functions, such as reasoning.
丘脑由于与多个皮层区域广泛连接，对于支持各种认知行为至关重要。然而，丘脑及其与皮层区域的功能连接在认知推理中的作用尚不清楚，因为以前的研究在研究认知推理的神经机制时主要集中在皮层区域。为了填补这一知识空白，我们利用 7T 功能磁共振成像（fMRI）研究了认知推理任务期间丘脑的激活模式及其与皮层区域的功能连接，同时还研究了推理任务的复杂性如何影响丘脑的激活和与皮层区域的功能连接。我们的研究结果表明，认知推理过程与丘脑的激活增加及其与特定一组皮层区域（包括背外侧前额叶皮层、下额回、顶内沟、前扣带皮层/辅助运动区、楔前叶和腹内侧前额叶皮层）的功能连接有关。此外，推理任务的关系复杂性增加导致丘脑的激活和与皮层区域的功能连接相应增加。鉴于丘脑结构复杂，包括多个具有与特定皮层区域特定功能连接的不同核，我们使用基于其与不同皮层区域结构连接的图谱定义了丘脑细分。我们的研究结果表明，这些不同的丘脑亚区不仅在执行认知推理时表现出与特定皮层区域的不同连接模式，而且还表现出与任务复杂性相关的不同连接模式。总的来说，我们的研究提供了证据表明丘脑在支持越来越复杂的认知推理行为中的作用及其与皮层区域的连接，揭示了其对更高阶认知功能（如推理）的贡献。
