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Pulvinar nuclei

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Part of
  
thalamus

NeuroLex ID
  
Pulvinar

NeuroNames
  
hier-311

Dorlands /Elsevier
  
p_42/12680162

Pulvinar nuclei

Latin
  
nuclei pulvinaris (the nuclei plurally); pulvinar thalami (the set of nuclei singularly)

MeSH
  
A08.186.211.730.385.826.701.485.600

The pulvinar nuclei or nuclei of the pulvinar (nuclei pulvinares) are the nuclei (cell bodies of neurons) located in the thalamus (a part of the vertebrate brain). As a group they make up the collection called the pulvinar of the thalamus (pulvinar thalami), usually just called the pulvinar.

Contents

The pulvinar is usually grouped as one of the lateral thalamic nuclei in rodents and carnivores, and stands as an independent complex in primates.

Structure

By convention, the pulvinar is divided into four nuclei:

Their connectomic details are as follows:

  • The lateral and inferior pulvinar nuclei have widespread connections with early visual cortical areas.
  • The dorsal part of the lateral pulvinar nucleus predominantly has connections with posterior parietal cortex and the dorsal stream cortical areas.
  • The medial pulvinar nucleus has widespread connections with cingulate, posterior parietal, premotor and prefrontal cortical areas.
  • The pulvinar also has input from the superior colliculus to inferior, lateral and medial sections, which seems to be important in the initiation and compensation of saccade, as well as the regulation of visual attention

    • Clinical significance

    Lesions of the pulvinar can result in neglect syndromes and attentional deficits.

    Other animals

    The pulvinar varies in importance in different animals: it is virtually nonexistent in the rat, and grouped as the lateral posterior-pulvinar complex with the lateral posterior thalamic nucleus due to its small size in cats. In humans it makes up roughly 40% of the thalamus making it the largest of its nuclei. Significant research has been undertaken in the marmoset examining the role of the retinorecipient region of the inferior pulvinar (medial subdivision), which projects to visual cortical area MT, in the early development of MT and the dorsal stream, as well as following early-life lesions of the primary visual cortex (V1).

    Etymology and pronunciation

    The word pulvinar (English /pəlˈvaɪnər/) comes to scientific English vocabulary via New Latin from classical Latin pulvinus, "cushion". In the religion of ancient Rome, a pulvinar was an empty throne, a cushioned couch for occupation by a deity. Like the cervix uteri is usually just called the cervix (with "which cervix" being implicit), the pulvinar thalami (pulvinar of the thalamus) is usually just called the pulvinar (with "which pulvinar" being implicit); no other anatomic structure in today's Terminologia Anatomica is called a pulvinar, although in older terminology a part of the glomus body was called the pulvinar tunicae internae segmenti arterialis anastomosis arteriovenae glomeriformis. Each pulvinar nucleus (nucleus pulvinaris) has its own set of cortical connections.

    References

    Pulvinar nuclei Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA