What is meta thalamus?
The metathalamus is a region of the thalamencephalon formed by the medial and lateral geniculate bodies bilaterally. It serves as an important relay nucleus in both the auditory and visual pathways.
What are the 3 divisions of the thalamus?
The thalamus is a paired structure located in the center of the brain. Each side can divide into three groups of thalamic nuclei: a lateral nuclear group, a medial nuclear group, and an anterior nuclear group.
How does the thalamus work?
The thalamus relays sensory impulses from receptors in various parts of the body to the cerebral cortex. A sensory impulse travels from the body surface towards the thalamus, which receives it as a sensation. This sensation is then passed onto the cerebral cortex for interpretation as touch, pain or temperature.
What is the difference between thalamus and hypothalamus?
Thalamus consists of two bulb-like structures on each side of the forebrain, whereas hypothalamus are present in large numbers. Thalamus regulates emotions and thinking process, on the other hand hypothalamus regulates sleep, hunger,and body temperature. Thalamus is larger in size when compared to hypothalamus.
What are the functions of the thalamus in the brain?
The thalamus is a vital structure lying deep within the brain that has several important functions, such as sensory and motor function, attention, memory, speech, and emotion. Various thalamic nuclei with extensive nerve networks send signals all around the structures of the brain including the cerebral cortex.
How does the thalamus function as a relay station?
Thalamus act as the relay station and integrate information into different subcortical areas of the brain and the cerebral cortex. There are thalamic nuclei concerning every sensory signal among the exception of the olfactory system. It takes sensory signals and sends them to the associated cortical area.
How is the thalamus attached to the medial surface?
The medial surface is usually attached to the opposite thalamus by an interthalamic adhesion/bond. Inferiorly it is linked to the hypothalamus separated by an indistinct hypothalamic sulcus – this sulcus elongates from the upper end of cerebral aqueduct posteriorly to the interventricular foramen anteriorly.
Is the thalamus an integrative hub for functional information?
By performing graph-theoretic analyses on thalamocortical functional connectivity data collected from human participants, we found that most thalamic subdivisions display network properties that are capable of integrating multimodal information across diverse cortical functional networks.