NETTER - Neuroscience Flash Cards

Thalamic Nuclei
1. Anterior nuclei
2. Ventral anterior (VA) nucleus
3. Ventrolateral (VL) nucleus
4. Ventral posteromedial (VPM) nucleus
5. Ventral posterolateral (VPL) nucleus
6. Pulvinar
7. Lateral geniculate body (nucleus)
8. Medial geniculate body (nucleus)
9. Internal medullary lamina
10. Medial dorsal nucleus (MD)
11. Lateral posterior (LP) nucleus
12. Ventral posterolateral (VPL) nucleus
13. Reticular nucleus
14. Ventral posteromedial (VPM) nucleus
15. Centromedian (CM) nucleus
Comment: Many of the specific thalamic nuclei receive
topographically organized information from their sources of input
(e.g., sensory lemniscal channels for specific sensory nuclei for
somatosensory, trigeminal sensory, auditory, and visual processing).
The thalamus is not merely a relay station to the cortex; it extracts
information from its input and sends it to the associated region of
cerebral cortex in discrete patterns of projections. The cortex, in
turn, can act through interneurons of the thalamus to fine-tune its
own input that it is receiving from the thalamus. With many thalamic
nuclei, damage to the nucleus itself produces symptoms similar to
damage to its associated cortical region. This is also the case for
nuclei such as MD, interconnected with regions of frontal cortex.
Overview of the Nervous System See book 3.19