The anterior nuclei of thalamus (or anterior nuclear group) are a collection of
nuclei at the
rostral
Rostral may refer to:
Anatomy
* Rostral (anatomical term), situated toward the oral or nasal region
* Rostral bone, in ceratopsian dinosaurs
* Rostral organ, of certain fish
* Rostral scale, in snakes and scaled reptiles
Other uses
* Rostral colu ...
end of the
dorsal thalamus. They comprise the anteromedial, anterodorsal, and anteroventral nuclei.
Inputs and outputs
The anterior nuclei receive
afferents from the
mammillary bodies via the
mammillothalamic tract and from the
subiculum via the
fornix Fornix (plural ''fornices'', Latin for "arch") can refer to:
*''Fornix'' or ''throat scale'', a bowed prolongation of the corolla
Corolla may refer to:
*Corolla (botany), the petals of a flower, considered as a unit
*Toyota Corolla, an automobile ...
. In turn, they project to the
cingulate gyrus.
The anterior nuclei of the thalamus display functions pertaining to memory. Persons displaying lesions in the anterior thalamus, preventing input from the pathway involving the
hippocampus, mammillary bodies and the MTT, display forms of amnesia, supporting the anterior thalamus's involvement in episodic memory. However, although the hypothalamus projects to both the mammillary bodies and the anterior nuclei of the thalamus, the anterior nuclei receive input from hippocampal cells deep to the pyramidal cells projecting to the mammillary bodies.
These nuclei are considered to be association nuclei, one of the three broader subdivisions of thalamic nuclei. These nuclei receive input from the
cerebral cortex. The input received is integrated and re-directed back to the cortical areas of the cerebrum known as association areas. The anterior nuclei regulates what input is redistributed to the cortex. The connections of the anterior nuclei are similar to that of the lateral dorsal (LD) nuclei.
Function
These
nuclei are thought to play a role in the modulation of
alertness and are involved in
learning
Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, value (personal and cultural), values, attitudes, and preferences. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals, and some machine learning, machines ...
and
episodic memory.
They are considered to be part of the
limbic system
The limbic system, also known as the paleomammalian cortex, is a set of brain structures located on both sides of the thalamus, immediately beneath the medial temporal lobe of the cerebrum primarily in the forebrain.Schacter, Daniel L. 2012. ''Ps ...
.
The anterior thalamic nuclei (ATN) are recently thought to be connected in pathways serving a spatial navigation role in reference to propagating head movements. The ATN displays bidirectional connections with the postsubiculum, a structure in humans involved in regulating signaling relative to the movement of the head in the horizontal plane. This structure contains "head direction cells" hypothesized to also be present in the ATN. These head direction cells fire in response to an animal pointing its head in a certain direction. Ultimately, the firing sequences of these cells encode information allowing an animal to perceive its direction in relation to its spatial environment.
Additional images
File:Territoriostalamo.svg, Thalamus
References
External links
NIF Search - Anterior Nuclear Groupvia the
Neuroscience Information Framework
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