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Functional topography of the thalamocortical system in human

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Abstract

Various studies have indicated that the thalamus is involved in controlling both cortico-cortical information flow and cortical communication with the rest of the brain. Detailed anatomy and functional connectivity patterns of the thalamocortical system are essential to understanding the cortical organization and pathophysiology of a wide range of thalamus-related neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases. The current study used resting-state fMRI to investigate the topography of the human thalamocortical system from a functional perspective. The thalamus-related cortical networks were identified by performing independent component analysis on voxel-based thalamic functional connectivity maps across a large group of subjects. The resulting functional brain networks were very similar to well-established resting-state network maps. Using these brain network components in a spatial regression model with each thalamic voxel’s functional connectivity map, we localized the thalamic subdivisions related to each brain network. For instance, the medial dorsal nucleus was shown to be associated with the default mode, the bilateral executive, the medial visual networks; and the pulvinar nucleus was involved in both the dorsal attention and the visual networks. These results revealed that a single nucleus may have functional connections with multiple cortical regions or even multiple functional networks, and may be potentially related to the function of mediation or modulation of multiple cortical networks. This observed organization of thalamocortical system provided a reference for studying the functions of thalamic sub-regions. The importance of intrinsic connectivity-based mapping of the thalamocortical relationship is discussed, as well as the applicability of the approach for future studies.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by NIH 5R01 AG032088 (BBB), DA038895 (BBB), EB000215 (JSH).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University Heights, Newark, NJ, 07102, USA

    Rui Yuan, Xin Di, Suril Gohel & Bharat B. Biswal

  2. MRC/UCT Medical Imaging Research Unit, Department of Human Biology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Paul A. Taylor

  3. African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Muizenberg, Western Cape, South Africa

    Paul A. Taylor

  4. Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Chiayi, College of Medicine and School of Medical Technology, Chang-Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan

    Yuan-Hsiung Tsai

  5. Department of Radiology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, 07102, USA

    Bharat B. Biswal

  6. Department of Electrical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University Heights, Newark, NJ, 07102, USA

    Rui Yuan

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  1. Rui Yuan
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  2. Xin Di
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  3. Paul A. Taylor
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  4. Suril Gohel
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  5. Yuan-Hsiung Tsai
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  6. Bharat B. Biswal
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Correspondence to Bharat B. Biswal.

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Yuan, R., Di, X., Taylor, P.A. et al. Functional topography of the thalamocortical system in human. Brain Struct Funct 221, 1971–1984 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-015-1018-7

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