Thalamic associative nuclei

Associative nuclei are involved in higher-level cognition (Schmahmann 2003).

Lateral posterior nucleus– higher order somatosensory and visuospatial integration and spatial cognition

Medial dorsal nuclei

• Medial, magnocellular – drive, motivation, inhibition, emotion
• Intermediate, parvicellular – executive functions, working memory
• Lateral, multiform – attention, horizontal gaze

Pulvinar nuclei

• Medial – supramodal, high-level association region across multiple domains
• Lateral – somatosensory, visual association
• Inferior – visual association
• Anterior (pulvinar oralis) – intramodality somatosensory association, pain

References

Schmahmann, J. D. Vascular syndromes of the thalamus. Stroke 34, 2264–2278 (2003) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12933968/