The Role of the Parafascicular Complex (CM-Pf) of the Human Thalamus in the Neuronal Mechanisms of Selective Attention

Abstract

The reactions of 93 neurons in the parafascicular complex (CM-Pf) of the human thalamus were studied by microelectrode recording during stereotaxic neurosurgical operations in patients with spastic torticollis. High reactivity was demonstrated for two previously classified types of neurons with identical irregular (type A) and bursting Ca2+ -dependent (type B) activities in response to presentation of relevant verbal stimuli evoking selective attention in humans. Concordant changes in the network activity of A and B neurons were observed, in the form of linked activatory-inhibitory patterns of responses and the appearance, at the moment of presentation of an imperative morpheme of the command stimulus, of rapidly occurring intercellular interactions consisting of local synchronization with simultaneously developing rhythmic oscillatory (3-4 Hz) activity. Data are presented on the existence of a direct connection between these neuronal rearrangements and activation of selective attention, providing evidence for the involvement of the thalamic parafascicular complex (CM-Pf) in the mechanisms of selective attention and processing of relevant verbal information during the preparative period of voluntary actions.

A Dopamine–Acetylcholine Cascade: Simulating Learned and Lesion-Induced Behavior of Striatal Cholinergic Interneurons

“…Salient novel stimuli with no reward history, which lead to large CM-Pf responses (Matsumoto et al 2001) and modest DAergic responses (Schultz 1998), will also be able to generate a TAN pause and thereby redirect behavior (Tan and Bullock 2007). Even nonnovel (habituated) stimuli, which do not ordinarily generate large CM-Pf responses, have been shown to do so if the current task requires selective attention to, and response control by, such stimuli (Raeva 2006). Thus the ability of novelty and/or task relevance to redirect behavior, even in competition with cues with intermediate expected-reward values, may be partly mediated by CM-Pf and the TAN operating characteristic revealed in Fig.…”

Deep Brain Stimulation of the Center Median-Parafascicular Complex of the Thalamus Has Efficient Anti-Parkinsonian Action Associated with Widespread Cellular Responses in the Basal Ganglia Network in a Rat Model of Parkinson's Disease

“…Pf-HFS completely reversed the neglect toward the contralateral side induced by the unilateral 6-OHDA lesion, re-establishing the balance of food retrievals from both sides of the body. The potent action of Pf-HFS in this test of lateralized response selection is to be considered in particular in relationship with the proposed role of the CM/Pf-striatal system in the modulation of motor responses under behaviorally significant external stimuli and as the entrance of information with attentional orienting value to the BG circuits (Matsumoto et al, 2001;Van der Werf et al, 2002;Raeva, 2006;Minamimoto et al, 2009). On the other hand, we also examined the impact of STN-HFS in the corridor task and observed a beneficial effect equivalent to that provided by Pf-HFS, whereas the two surgical treatments have differential qualitative or quantitative outcomes on akinesia or dyskinesias.…”

“…CM/Pf also provides projections to all the other BG components (Van der Werf et al, 2002) and, in turn, receives substantial innervation from the BG output structures (Sidibé et al, 2002), particularly from the internal globus pallidus (GPi), called the entopeduncular nucleus (EP) in rodents. One of the main functions attributed to the CM/Pf-BG circuit is the process of attentional orienting and action selection appropriate for unexpected situations (Raeva, 2006;Minamimoto et al, 2009).…”

Addictive neurons

“…Scientists made great progress by using rodents, and it is a good thing that we are not involving dogs in addiction science, although it is hard to digest studies on human being in general, and those requiring the insertion of microelectrodes into the brain in particular [8,119] .…”

“…Although neural cells in CNS of Animalia have similar electrical properties in the form of spikes (either spontaneous or triggered), only neurons of humans are able and will respond to 'clench your hand to make a fist!' [8] .…”