Drivers from the deep: the contribution of collicular input to thalamocortical processing.

Wurtz, Robert H

Sommer, Marc A

Cavanaugh, James

Netherlands

2016-03-25T03:10:49Z

2005

A traditional view of the thalamus is that it is a relay station which receives sensory input and conveys this information to cortex. This sensory input determines most of the properties of first order thalamic neurons, and so is said to drive, rather than modulate, these neurons. This holds as a rule for first order thalamic nuclei, but in contrast, higher order thalamic nuclei receive much of their driver input back from cerebral cortex. In addition, higher order thalamic neurons receive inputs from subcortical movement-related centers. In the terminology popularized from studies of the sensory system, can we consider these ascending motor inputs to thalamus from subcortical structures to be modulators, subtly influencing the activity of their target neurons, or drivers, dictating the activity of their target neurons? This chapter summarizes relevant evidence from neuronal recording, inactivation, and stimulation of pathways projecting from the superior colliculus through thalamus to cerebral cortex. The study concludes that many inputs to the higher order nuclei of the thalamus from subcortical oculomotor areas - from the superior colliculus and probably other midbrain and pontine regions - should be regarded as motor drivers analogous to the sensory drivers at the first order thalamic nuclei. These motor drivers at the thalamus are viewed as being at the top of a series of feedback loops that provide information on impending actions, just as sensory drivers provide information about the external environment.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16226586

S0079-6123(05)49015-9

1875-7855

https://hdl.handle.net/10161/11743

eng

Elsevier

Prog Brain Res

10.1016/S0079-6123(05)49015-9

Action Potentials

Animals

Cerebral Cortex

Eye Movements

Humans

Neurons

Psychomotor Performance

Superior Colliculi

Thalamus

Visual Pathways

Visual Perception

Drivers from the deep: the contribution of collicular input to thalamocortical processing.

Journal article

Sommer, Marc A|0000-0001-5061-763X

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16226586

207

225

Basic Science Departments

Biomedical Engineering

Center for Cognitive Neuroscience

Duke

Duke Institute for Brain Sciences

Institutes and Provost's Academic Units

Neurobiology

Pratt School of Engineering

School of Medicine

University Institutes and Centers

Published

149