Topic: thalamocortical circuits

In highly volatile environments, performing actions that address current needs and desires is an ongoing challenge for living organisms. For example, the predictive value of environmental signals needs to be updated when predicted and actual outcomes differ. Furthermore, organisms also need to gain control over the environment through actions that are expected to produce specific outcomes. The data to be presented will show that these processes are highly reliant on thalamocortical circuits wherein thalamic nuclei make a critical contribution to adaptive decision-making, challenging the view t

TCF7L2 is a high-confidence risk gene for neurodevelopmental disorders (NDs), but its role in their pathogenesis is unknown. It is highly expressed in the thalamus - candidate structure for NDs pathogenesis - regulating its electrophysiological maturation. To understand the role of thalamus-expressed Tcf7l2 in signal processing in thalamocortical circuits, we investigated consequences of its deficiency in the somatosensory circuit: first- and higher-order thalamic nuclei (VPM and POM) and the barrel cortex.Tcf7l2 postnatal thalamic knockout mice were used to assess signal gating mechanism in v