Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-77c78cf97d-v4t4b Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-04-28T17:13:09.184Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

9 - Diencephalon: thalamus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 August 2009

David L. Clark ,
Nashaat N. Boutros  and
Mario F. Mendez
David L. Clark
Affiliation:
Ohio State University
Nashaat N. Boutros
Affiliation:
Yale University, Connecticut
Mario F. Mendez
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Get access

Summary

The thalamus functions as the principal relay station for sensory information destined for the cerebral cortex. It is made up of a number of nuclei, which can be grouped into relay nuclei and diffuse-projection nuclei (Table 9.1). Each relay nucleus is associated with a single sensory modality or motor system and projects to a specific region of the cerebral cortex with which it has reciprocal connections. The diffuse-projection group of nuclei have more widespread connections with the cortex and also interact with other thalamic nuclei. It is believed that this group of nuclei is involved with regulating the level of arousal of the brain. The limbic thalamus consists of a number of the thalamic nuclei that project to the limbic cortex and includes both relay and diffuse-projection nuclei.

Anatomy and behavioral considerations

The thalamus consists of a symmetrical pair of ovoid structures located above (dorsal to) the hypothalamus. The left thalamus and right thalamus are separated medially by the third ventricle and bounded laterally by the posterior limb of the internal capsule (Figures 9.1–9.3). The massa intermedia (interthalamic adhesion) is a bridge of cells that spans the third ventricle and joins the left with the right thalamus. The thalamus is bounded in front (anteriorly) by the head of the caudate nucleus and the genu of the internal capsule and behind (posteriorly) by the midbrain. The subthalamic nucleus (subthalamus) lies immediately below (ventral to) the thalamus and is sandwiched between the thalamus, internal capsule, and pretectal area (Figures 9.2 and 9.3).

Information

Type
Chapter
Information
The Brain and Behavior
An Introduction to Behavioral Neuroanatomy
 , pp. 152 - 164
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Albe-Fessard, D., Berkeley, K. J., Kruger, L., Ralston, H. J. III, and Willis, W. D. Jr. 1985. Diencephalic mechanisms of pain sensation. Brain Res. 356:217–296.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Andreasen, N. C. 1997. The role of the thalamus in schizophrenia. Can. J. Psychiatry 42:27–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andreasen, N. C., Arndt, S., Swayze, V., Cizadlo, T., Flaum, M., O'Leary, D., Ehrhardt, J. C., and Yuh, W. T. C. 1994. Thalamic abnormalities in schizophrenia visualized through magnetic resonance image averaging. Science 266:294–297.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Andy, O. J., Jurko, M. F., and Giurintano, L. P. 1975. Behavioral changes correlated with thalamotomy site. Confin. Neurol. 36:106–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baleydier, C., and Mauguiere, F. 1987. Network organization of the connectivity between parietal area 7, posterior cingulate cortex and medial pulvinar nucleus: a double fluorescent tracer study in monkey. Exp. Brain Res. 66:385–393.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baxter, L. R. 1990. Brain imaging as a tool in establishing a theory of brain pathology in obsessive compulsive disorder. J. Clin. Psychiatry 51 (Suppl.):22–26.Google ScholarPubMed
Bentivoglio, M., Kultas-Llinsky, D., and Llinsky, I. 1993. Limbic thalamus: structure, intrinsic organization, and connections. In: Vogt, B. A. and Gabriel, M. (eds.) Neurobiology of Cingulate Cortex and Limbic Thalamus: A Comprehensive Handbook. Boston, Mass.:Birkhauser.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bogousslavsky, J. 1991. Thalamic dementia and pseudo-dementia. In: Hartmann, A., Kuschinsky, W., and Hoyer, S. (eds.) Cerebral Ischemia and Dementia. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bogousslavsky, J. 1995. Thalamic infarcts. In: Donnay, G. A., Norrving, B., Bamford, J. M., and Bogousslavsky, J. (eds.) Lacunar and Other Subcortical Infarctions. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bogousslavsky, J., Regli, F., and Assal, G. 1986. The syndrome of unilateral tuberothalamic artery territory infarction. Stroke 17:434–441.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bogousslavsky, J., Regli, F., and Uske, A. 1988a. Thalamic infarcts: clinical syndromes, etiology, and prognosis. Neurology 38:837–848.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bogousslavsky, J., Ferrazzini, M., Regli, F., Assal, G., Tanabe, H., and Delaloye-Bischof, A. 1988b. Manic delirium and frontal-like syndrome with paramedian infarction of the right thalamus. J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 51:116–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bogousslavsky, J., Regli, F., Delaloye, B., Delaloye-Bischof, A., Assal, G., and Uske, A. 1991. Loss of psychic self activation with bithalamic infarction: neurobehavioural, CT, MRI and SPECT correlates. Acta Neurol. Scand. 83:309–316.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bovie, J., Leijon, G., and Johansson, I. 1989. Central post-stroke pain – a study of the mechanisms through analyses of the sensory abnormalities. Pain 37:173–185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braff, D. L. 1993. Information processing and attention dysfunctions in schizophrenia. Schizophr. Bull. 19:233–259.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, W., Assal, G., Bogousslavsky, J., Regli, F., Townsend, D. W., Leenders, K. L., and Blecic, S. 1994. Pure amnesia after unilateral left polar thalamic infarct: topographic and sequential neuropsychological and metabolic (PET) correlations. J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 57:27–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Corey-Bloom, J., Jernigan, T., Archibald, S., Harris, M. J., and Jeste, D. V. 1995. Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging in late-life schizophrenia. Am. J. Psychiatry 152:447–449.Google ScholarPubMed
Cummings, J. L., and Mendez, M. F. 1984. Secondary mania with focal cerebrovascular lesions. Am. J. Psychiatry 141:1084–1087.Google ScholarPubMed
Duncan, G. H., Kupers, R. C., Marhand, S., Villemure, J.-G., Gybels, J. M., and Bushnell, M. C. 1998. Stimulation of human thalamus for pain relief: possible modulatory circuits revealed by positron emission tomography. J. Neurophysiol. 80(6):3326–3330.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Graff-Radford, N. R., Eslinger, P. J., Damasio, A. R., and Yamada, T. 1984. Nonhemorrhagic infarction of the thalamus: behavioral, anatomic, and physiologic correlates. Neurology 34:14–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Graff-Radford, N. R., Damasio, H., Yamada, T., Eslinger, P. J., and Damasio, A. R. 1985. Nonhaemorrhagic thalamic infarction: clinical, neuropsychological and electrophysiological findings in four anatomical groups defined by computerized tomography. Brain 108:485–516.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Graff-Radford, N. R., Tranel, D., Hoesen, G., and Brandt, J. P. 1990. Diencephalic amnesia. Brain 113:1–25.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Head, H., and Holmes, G. 1911. Sensory disturbances from cerebral lesions. Brain 34:102–254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jeste, D. V., Galasko, D., Corey-Bloom, J., Walens, S., and Granholm, E. 1996. Neuropsychiatric aspects of the schizophrenias. In: Fogel, B. S., Schiffer, R. B., and Rao, S. M. (eds.) Neuropsychiatry. Baltimore, Md.: Williams and Wilkins.Google Scholar
Karabelas, T., Kalfakis, N., Kasvikis, I., and Vassilopoulos, D. 1985. Unusual features in a case of bilateral paramedian thalamic infarction. J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 48:186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kupers, R. C., Gybels, J. M., and Gjedde, A. 2000. Positron emission tomography study of a chronic pain patient successfully treated with somatosensory thalamic stimulation. Pain 87:295–302.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Martuza, R. L., Chiocca, E. A., Jenike, M. A., Girivnas, I. E., and Ballantine, H. T. 1990. Stereotactic radiofrequency thermal cingulotomy for obsessive compulsive disorder. J. Neuropsychiatry Clin. Neurosci. 2:331–336.Google ScholarPubMed
Matharu, M. S., Bartsch, T., Ward, N., Frackowiak, R. S. J., Weiner, R., and Goadsby, P. J. 2003. Central neuromodulation in chronic migraine patients with suboccipital stimulators: a PET study. Brain 127:220–230.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Melo, T. P., and Bogousslavsky, J. 1992. Hemiataxia–hypesthesia: a thalamic stroke syndrome. J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 55:581–584.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mendez, M. F., Papasian, N. C., Lim, G. T., and Swanberg, M. 2003. Thalamic acalculia. J. Neuropsychiatry Clin. Neurosci. 15:115–116.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mesulam, M. M. 1985. Attention, confusional states and neglect. In: Mesulem, M. M. (ed.) Principles of Behavioral Neurology. Philadelphia, Pa.: Davis, pp. 125–168.Google Scholar
Morris, J. S., DeGelder, B., Weiskrantz, L., and Dolan, R. J. 2001. Differential extrageniculostriate and amygdala responses to presentation of emotional faces in a cortically blind field. Brain 124:1241–1252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Musil, S. Y., and Olson, C. R. 1988. Organization of cortical and subcortical projections to anterior cingulate cortex in the cat. J. Comp. Neurol. 227:109–120.Google Scholar
Nadeau, S. E., Roeltgen, D. P., Sevush, S., Ballinger, W. E., and Watson, R. T. 1994. Apraxia due to a pathologically documented thalamic infarction. Neurology 44:2133–2137.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pakkenberg, B. 1992. The volume of the mediodorsal thalamic nucleus in treated and untreated schizophrenics. Schizophr. Res. 7:95–100.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Partlow, G. D., del Carpio-O'Donovan, R., Melanson, D., and Peters, T. M. 1992. Bilateral thalamic glioma: review of eight cases with personality change and mental deterioration. Am. J. Neuroradiol. 13:1225–1230.Google ScholarPubMed
Scheibel, A. B. 1997. The thalamus and neuropsychiatric illness. J. Neuropsychiatry Clin. Neurosci. 9:342–353.Google ScholarPubMed
Silversweig, D. A., Stern, E., Frith, C., Cahill, C., Holmes, A., Groutoonik, S., Seaward, J., McKenna, P., Chua, S. E., Schnorr, L., Jones, T., and Frackowiak, R. S. J. 1995. A functional neuroanatomy of hallucinations in schizophrenia. Nature 378:176–179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vuilleumier, P., Armony, J. L., Driver, J., and Dolan, R. J. 2003. Distinct spatial frequency sensitivities for processing faces and emotional expressions. Nature Neurosci. 6(6):624–631.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vogt, B. A., Pandya, D. N., and Rosene, D. L. 1987. Cingulate cortex of the rhesus monkey: I. Cytoarchitecture and thalamic afferents. J. Comp. Neurol. 262:256–270.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yoshii, N., Mizokami, T., Ushikubo, T., Kuramitsu, T., and Fukuda, S. 1980. Long-term follow-up study after pulvinotomy for intractable pain. Appl. Neurophysiol. 43:128–132.Google ScholarPubMed
Zubieta, J.-K., Smith, Y. R., Bueller, J. A., Xu, Y., Kilbourn, M. R., Jewett, D. M., Meyer, C. R., Koeppe, R. A., and Stohler, C. S. 2002. μ-Opioid receptor-mediated antinociceptive responses differ in men and women. J. Neurosci. 22(12):5100–5107.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Why this information is here

This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.

Accessibility Information

Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this chapter is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×