Topic: thalamus

Brain organization and function is a complex topic. We are good at establishing correlates of perception and behavior across forebrain circuits, as well as manipulating activity in these circuits to affect behavior. However, we still lack good models for the large-scale organization and function of the forebrain. What are the contributions of the cortex, basal ganglia, and thalamus to behavior? In addressing these questions, we often ascribe function to each area as if it were an independent processing unit. However, we know from the anatomy that the cortex, basal ganglia, and thalamus, are ma

On Thursday, 23rd of February, we will host Veerle Visser-Vandewalle and Marie Krüger. Marie Krüger, MD, is is currently leading the stereotactic surgery unit in St. Gallen but is on her move to join the team at UCL / Queensquare London. She will discuss “Directional DBS targeting of different nuclei in the thalamus for the treatment of pain”. Veerle Visser-Vandewalle, MD, PhD, is the Head of the Department of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery at University Hospital of Cologne. Beside his scientific presentation on “25 years of DBS beyond movement disorders: what challenges are we fac

Traditionally, the dorsolateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN) of the thalamus has been considered a feedforward relay station for retinal signals to reach primary visual cortex. The local and long-range circuits of dLGN, however, suggest that this view is not correct. Indeed, besides the thalamo-cortical relay cells, dLGN contains local inhibitory interneurons, and receives not only feedforward input from the retina, but also massive direct and indirect feedback from primary visual cortex. Furthermore, it is one of the earliest processing stages in the visual system that integrates visual informat

Early postnatal development is a critical period for the establishment of functional brain networks. While extensive research has focused on local circuit maturation, the emergence and evolution of long-range communication between brain regions has received less attention. Here we investigate the developmental trajectory of inter-regional communication in the mouse brain over the first two postnatal weeks of life, a period characterised by rapid synaptogenesis followed by activity-dependent pruning and circuit refinement. We leverage electrophysiological datasets of population activity simulta

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