The thalamus is the gateway that every sensation except smell passes through on its way to the cortex, and it does far more than relay. Examiners ask most often for the functions of the thalamus, then for its nuclei with a labelled diagram, and for thalamic syndrome.
Topics, in the book’s order
- Thalamus: nuclei, functions and thalamic syndrome · pp. 1026–1032 · asked 11 times
When you’ve read them: Quiz 122 · Thalamus, 15 questions.
After this chapter you should be able to
- name the groups of thalamic nuclei and say what each group does
- describe how the thalamus is organized: its two laminae, and where each ascending pathway ends
- list the functions of the thalamus
- link each function to what goes wrong when it fails, as in thalamic syndrome
- describe the structure and functions of the epithalamus and the subthalamus
Viva checklist
- The two medullary laminae, and what the Y-shaped one divides
- The anatomical groups of nuclei, and the nuclei in each
- The four physiological groups, with an example of each
- Specific versus nonspecific nuclei: which is which, and how each projects
- Where the medial lemniscus, spinothalamic and spinoreticulothalamic fibres end
- VPL: core and shell, and how face, arm and leg are laid out
- What the PO, intralaminar and reticular nuclei do
- At least eight functions of the thalamus
- The one sense that does not relay in the thalamus
- The thalamic nucleus in the Papez circuit
- The recruiting response
- Thalamic syndrome: the artery, the nucleus, the deficits, and why the face is spared
- The three parts of the epithalamus; the body of Luys and hemiballismus