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The Whisker Thalamus

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Sensorimotor Integration in the Whisker System

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Abstract

Sensory information from the whiskers ascends through the trigeminal nuclei in the brainstem to the midbrain and forebrain where it reaches primarily the superior colliculus, the pretectal nuclei, the zona incerta, and the thalamus. The whisker thalamus is at the center of this network because it regulates passage to the barrel cortex as dictated by behavioral state. From barrel cortex, descending activity is fed back to the thalamus and to the other nuclei that process ascending information. Thalamocortical cells in the whisker thalamus receive sensory, cortical, inhibitory, and modulatory afferents. The physiological properties of this network and the functions that emerge from its activity are described here.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Neurobiology and Anatomy, Drexel University College of Medicine, 2900 Queen Lane, 19129, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Manuel A. Castro-Alamancos

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  1. Manuel A. Castro-Alamancos
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Correspondence to Manuel A. Castro-Alamancos .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Systems Neuroscience, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

    Patrik Krieger

  2. Institute of Neuroscience, Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Munich, Germany

    Alexander Groh

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Castro-Alamancos, M. (2015). The Whisker Thalamus. In: Krieger, P., Groh, A. (eds) Sensorimotor Integration in the Whisker System. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2975-7_3

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