Lateral pulvinar nucleus (''nucleus pulvinaris lateralis'') is one of four traditionally anatomically distinguished nuclei of the pulvinar of the

thalamus The thalamus (: thalami; from Greek language, Greek Wikt:θάλαμος, θάλαμος, "chamber") is a large mass of gray matter on the lateral wall of the third ventricle forming the wikt:dorsal, dorsal part of the diencephalon (a division of ...

. The other three nuclei of the pulvinar are called

anterior Standard anatomical terms of location are used to describe unambiguously the anatomy of humans and other animals. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. This position pro ...

, inferior and

medial Medial may refer to: Mathematics * Medial magma, a mathematical identity in algebra Geometry * Medial axis, in geometry the set of all points having more than one closest point on an object's boundary * Medial graph, another graph that repr ...

pulvinar nuclei The pulvinar nuclei or nuclei of the pulvinar (nuclei pulvinares) are the nuclei ( cell bodies of neurons) located in the thalamus (a part of the vertebrate brain). As a group they make up the collection called the pulvinar of the thalamus (pulv ...

Connections

Afferent

* Lateral pulvinar

nucleus Nucleus (: nuclei) is a Latin word for the seed inside a fruit. It most often refers to: *Atomic nucleus, the very dense central region of an atom *Cell nucleus, a central organelle of a eukaryotic cell, containing most of the cell's DNA Nucleu ...

, together with its inferior and

nuclei, receives afferent input from

superior colliculus In neuroanatomy, the superior colliculus () is a structure lying on the tectum, roof of the mammalian midbrain. In non-mammalian vertebrates, the Homology (biology), homologous structure is known as the optic tectum or optic lobe. The adjective f ...

. * The dorsal part of the lateral pulvinar

also receives afferent input from

posterior parietal The parietal lobe is one of the four major lobes of the cerebral cortex in the brain of mammals. The parietal lobe is positioned above the temporal lobe and behind the frontal lobe and central sulcus. The parietal lobe integrates sensory informa ...

cortex and the

dorsal stream The two-streams hypothesis is a model of the neural processing of vision as well as hearing. The hypothesis, given its initial characterisation in a paper by David Milner and Melvyn A. Goodale in 1992, argues that humans possess two distinct vis ...

cortical areas.

Efferent

* Lateral pulvinar

, together with its inferior

, both have projections to the early visual cortical areas. * The dorsal part of the lateral pulvinar

also sends its efferent output connections to the

cortex and the

cortical areas.

Functions

* Lateral pulvinar

, together with its inferior and

nuclei, is thought to be important for the initiation and compensation of

saccadic In vision science, a saccade ( ; ; ) is a quick, simultaneous movement of both eyes between two or more phases of focal points in the same direction. In contrast, in smooth-pursuit movements, the eyes move smoothly instead of in jumps. Control ...

movements of the

eye An eye is a sensory organ that allows an organism to perceive visual information. It detects light and converts it into electro-chemical impulses in neurons (neurones). It is part of an organism's visual system. In higher organisms, the ey ...

s. Those nuclei also participate in the visual

attention Attention or focus, is the concentration of awareness on some phenomenon to the exclusion of other stimuli. It is the selective concentration on discrete information, either subjectively or objectively. William James (1890) wrote that "Atte ...

regulation.Chalupa, L. (1991). Visual function of the pulvinar. The Neural Basis of Visual Function. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, pp. 140-159.

Clinical significance

Lesions of the lateral pulvinar

can result in neglect syndromes and attentional deficits.

References

{{neuroanatomy-stub Pulvinar nuclei