Structural and functional organization of the midline and intralaminar nuclei of the thalamus

Abstract

The midline and intralaminar nuclei of the thalamus form a major part of the “limbic thalamus;” that is, thalamic structures anatomically and functionally linked with the limbic forebrain. The midline nuclei consist of the paraventricular (PV) and paratenial nuclei, dorsally and the rhomboid and nucleus reuniens (RE), ventrally. The rostral intralaminar nuclei (ILt) consist of the central medial (CM), paracentral (PC) and central lateral (CL) nuclei. We presently concentrate on RE, PV, CM and CL nuclei of the thalamus. The nucleus reuniens receives a diverse array of input from limbic-related sites, and predominantly projects to the hippocampus and to “limbic” cortices. The RE participates in various cognitive functions including spatial working memory, executive functions (attention, behavioral flexibility) and affect/fear behavior. The PV receives significant limbic-related afferents, particularly the hypothalamus, and mainly distributes to “affective” structures of the forebrain including the bed nucleus of stria terminalis, nucleus accumbens and the amygdala. Accordingly, PV serves a critical role in “motivated behaviors” such as arousal, feeding/consummatory behavior and drug addiction. The rostral ILt receives both limbic and sensorimotor-related input and distributes widely over limbic and motor regions of the frontal cortex—and throughout the dorsal striatum. The intralaminar thalamus is critical for maintaining consciousness and directly participates in various sensorimotor functions (visuospatial or reaction time tasks) and cognitive tasks involving striatal-cortical interactions. As discussed herein, while each of the midline and intralaminar nuclei are anatomically and functionally distinct, they collectively serve a vital role in several affective, cognitive and executive behaviors – as major components of a brainstem-diencephalic-thalamocortical circuitry.

Thalamic contributions to psychosis susceptibility: Evidence from co‐activation patterns accounting for intra‐seed spatial variability (μCAPs)

“…In agreement with past findings from network functional analysis (Kumar et al, 2022 ), the DMN co‐activated with the midline thalamus in both μCAPs 2 and 3. The midline thalamus is a group of nuclei that have been linked to a variety of cognitive functions, including emotion, memory, decision making, and attention (Vertes et al, 2022 ). It could be further divided into dorsal (paratenial and paraventricular nuclei) and ventral midline (reuniens and rhomboid nuclei) subcomponents (Ding et al, 2016 ).…”

Volume and complexity of the thalamus in Anorexia Nervosa: An exploratory evaluation

“…Although some lesional and animal‐type studies investigated the role of thalamic nuclei in some specific brain functions, including cognitive flexibility and feeding behaviours (Vertes et al., 2022), the morphological complexity of this structure and the large number of connections it takes with other brain areas make the evaluation of individual nuclei very challenging. This observation, together with the fact that in our sample regional volumetric changes were rather widespread and not specific to single thalamic sub‐parts, do not allow for specific functional inferences and hypotheses.…”

Retinorecipient areas in the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus): An image-forming and non-image forming circuitry

“…The MIN are a higher-order nuclear complex, which was initially thought to be a non-specific arousing circuit in the brain due, among other features, to their widespread connectional pattern with the cortex ( Bentivoglio et al, 1991 ; Saalman, 2014 ; Zhou and Zhu, 2019 ). Anatomical and functional data have demonstrated that the MIN are involved in specific brain functions, from cognitive to sensorimotor properties ( Bentivoglio et al, 1991 ; Groenewegen and Berendse, 1994 ; Van der Werf et al, 2002 ; Vertes et al, 2022 ). Furthermore, the growing electrophysiological evidence supports the functional role of the MIN in the control of the transmission of cortical information (for a review, see Saalman, 2014 ).…”