Research on the neural connectivity of the intralaminar thalamic nuclei (ILN) has been limited. Since the introduction of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), many probabilistic DTI studies have reported on neural connectivity of neural structures in normal subjects. However, no study on the neural connectivity of the ILN has been reported so far. In this study, using probabilistic DTI, we investigated the neural connectivity of the ILN in normal subjects. A total of 40 healthy subjects were recruited for this study. A seed region of interest was placed on the ILN of the thalamus using the FMRIB Software Library. Connectivity was defined as the incidence of connection between the ILN and target brain areas. We found high connectivity between the ILN and arousal-related areas (prefrontal cortex 100%, reticular formation 100%, pedunculopontine nucleus 97.5%, basal forebrain 95%, and hypothalamus 92.5% at threshold 5), attention related area (prefrontal cortex 100% at threshold 5), and sensori-motor function related areas (primary motor cortex 100%, globus pallidus 100%, putamen 98.8%, premotor cortex 96.3%, primary somatosensory cortex 95.0%, caudate nucleus 92.5%, and posterior parietal cortex 90.0% at threshold 5). Findings of this study showed that ILN has high connectivity with brain areas related to arousal, attention, and sensorimotor function. This result indicates a close association of ILN with these functions in the human brain.
Pubmed ID: 25058432 RIS Download
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Software library of image analysis and statistical tools for fMRI, MRI and DTI brain imaging data. Include registration, atlases, diffusion MRI tools for parameter reconstruction and probabilistic taractography, and viewer. Several brain atlases, integrated into FSLView and Featquery, allow viewing of structural and cytoarchitectonic standard space labels and probability maps for cortical and subcortical structures and white matter tracts. Includes Harvard-Oxford cortical and subcortical structural atlases, Julich histological atlas, JHU DTI-based white-matter atlases, Oxford thalamic connectivity atlas, Talairach atlas, MNI structural atlas, and Cerebellum atlas.
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