That Neuroscience Guy - Neuroscience Bites-The Thalamus

Episode Date: October 6, 2022

Next up in our series of Neuroscience Bites, we discuss the Thalamus; a brain area essential for a range of senses, consciousness, and even memory. 

Hi, my name is Olof Kregolsen, and I'm a neuroscientist at the University of Victoria. And in my spare time, I'm that neuroscience guy. Welcome to another Neuroscience Byte. Keeping in line with the plan for Season 4, today I'm going to review another brain structure, the thalamus. Now we've talked about the thalamus before, and the most important thing you need to know about the thalamus is that it's a relay station. All incoming information goes through the thalamus to the rest of the brain, and all outgoing signals go through the thalamus out to the motor system, for instance. So the thalamus plays a key role

in relaying sensory information. So information that comes in from the sensory system goes through the thalamus and then to the cerebral cortex. And similarly, outgoing motor commands come from the motor regions of the brain through the thalamus out to the motor system. But the thalamus does some other stuff as well. It plays a role in prioritizing attention. Basically, the thalamus helps you decide what to focus on. In other words, it helps orient the eyes, for instance, in terms of visual spatial attention, or it helps you cue to sounds that you might want to prioritize and process. It also plays a role in consciousness because it helps you stay awake and it keeps you alert. So it plays a role in basically keeping you conscious.

And last of all, it plays a role in cognition and memory. There's still a little bit of a debate what's going on there, but we know that the thalamus is activated during formation and storage of memories, during emotional processing, which ties it to cognition and memory. Now, it's important to realize the thalamus is not a single brain structure. It is actually a collection of nuclei. So, for instance, the thalamus is comprised of the anterior nucleus, which plays a role in memory, emotions, and behavioral regulation. But it also has other structures like the pulvinar nucleus, which plays a role in processing visual information, or the medial geniculate nucleus,

which helps process auditory information. So all of these nuclei together are the thalamus, So all of these nuclei together are the thalamus, and they each are little mini relay stations. For instance, the ventral posterior medial nucleus basically relays sensory information from the face to the somatosensory cortex. And the ventral anterior nucleus relays motor information about movement and it projects to the motor system and other parts of the brain. So the nuclei that comprise the thalamus are little mini relay stations themselves and the thalamus as a whole therefore is a big relay station within the brain. Now if you go to thatneurosciencedi.com and check out the blog I'll put up a

picture of what the thalamus is and where it is. And I'll also put up some more information about all these nuclei and the roles they're suspected to play. And it's important to realize that the thalamus is still being studied. We know that it's definitely a relay station, but the exact roles of all these little sub-nuclei and what they specifically do is still being debated. of all these little sub-nuclei, and what they specifically do is still being debated. That's another neuroscience bite. Remember, if you check out the website,

thatneuroscienceguy.com, not only will you see the blog, but there's links to Patreon where you can support us. There's links to Etsy, our YouTube channel, which is finally going to come online. I've got a bit of help on that one, details when it occurs, and some other stuff that's there. And remember,

if you have ideas, please DM me or email me. Follow me on Twitter at ThatNeuroscienceGuy or email us at ThatNeuroscienceGuy at gmail.com. My name is Olive Kregolson, and I'm That Neuroscience Guy. This is another Neuroscience Byte, and I'll see you on Sunday for another full episode of the podcast. Thank you so much for listening.