Sensorimotor integration in the brain of reptiles.

Visual, auditory, and somatosensory information is, via several thalamic nuclei, relayed to the reptilian forebrain. These thalamotelencephalic projections terminate primarily in the dorsal ventricular ridge in a non-overlapping way. Subsequent parallel processing of the three sensory modalities throughout the DVR, striatum and globus pallidus resembles the fundamentally parallel form of organization in the mammalian basal ganglia. The lack of direct projections to the thalamus and the absence of extensive, intrinsic connections make a comparison of the dorsal ventricular ridge with the mammalian neocortex highly questionable.