The thalamus in cognitive control and flexibility

Abstract

Thalamus is not just a relay of the brain. Thalamus is involved in PFC circuit of cognitive control tasks.

Explanation

Here is an experiment with cues of different modalities. Mouse should make correct choice when cue is presented. Here are two types of cues, first is white noise with low-pass filter and second is noise with hi-pass filter. One of them is supposed that mice should do visual task, another one is about audio task.
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Thalamic circuits for independent control of prefrontal signal and noise

Interactions between the mediodorsal thalamus and prefrontal cortex are critical for cognition. Studies in humans indicate that these interactions may resolve uncertainty in decision making, but the precise mechanisms are unknown.

Here, we identified two distinct mediodorsal projections to prefrontal cortex that play complementary mechanistic roles in decision making under uncertainty. Specifically, we found that a dopamine receptor (D2) expressing projection amplifies prefrontal signals when task inputs are sparse and a kainate receptor (GRIK4) expressing projection that suppresses prefrontal noise when task inputs are dense but conflicting.

source: https://neurosciencenews.com/uncertainty-decision-making-19477/,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gmGWte6h-k

tags: #thalamus #pfc #cognition #decision