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/