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The thalamic paradox

Nature Neuroscience volume 20, pages 901–902 (2017)Cite this article

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Most thalamic research has focused on sensory transmission. Now three independent groups reveal the thalamus to be critical in behaviors linked to frontal cortex and the maintenance of persistent cortical activity during delays.

This is now about to change. As with the cortex in the nineteenth century, critical experiments were needed to launch a new way of thinking about thalamus in the twenty-first century. The simultaneous publication of two papers in Nature5,6 and one in Nature Neuroscience7 about interactions between thalamus and frontal cortex in different behavioral situations in mouse marks the beginning of a new era in thalamic research. Whereas we may have thought sensory transmission to be the rule in thalamocortical function, now it seems equally likely that it is the exception, a highly specialized form of thalamocortical activity. As shown in these three landmark papers, the rules of operation are qualitatively distinct in other parts of thalamic circuits.

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Figure 1: Changing view of thalamus.

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  1. Laboratory of Thalamus Research, Institute of Experimental Medicine, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

    László Acsády

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  1. László Acsády
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Correspondence to László Acsády.

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Acsády, L. The thalamic paradox. Nat Neurosci 20, 901–902 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.4583

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