Cortical Function: a View from the Thalamus

Almost all of the messages that are received by the cerebral cortex from the environment or from the body's internal receptors come through the thalamus and much current thought about perceptual processing is based on sensory pathways that relay in the thalamus. This volume focuses on three major areas: the role of thalamocortical communication in cognition and attention; the role of the thalamus in communication between cortical areas; the hypothesis that much or all of the information relayed by thalamus, even to classical, pure "sensory" areas of cortex, represents a corollary message being sent simultaneously to motor centers. It presents a broad overview of important recent advances in these areas.

* Provides a look at brain structures involved in perception and action
* Includes summaries by leading investigators in the field
* Presents recent advances in our understanding of brain functions

Pain and the primate thalamus;
On the impact of attention and motor planning on the lateral geniculate nucleus;
The vibrissal system as a model of thalamic operations;
Connexon connexions in the thalamocortical system;
Neural substrates within primary visual cortex for interactions between parallel visual pathways;
Bottom up and top down dynamics in visual cortex;
Dynamic properties of thalamic neurons for vision;
Spike timing and synaptic dynamics at the awak thalmocortical synapse;
Thalamic relays and cortical functioning;
Functional cell classes and functional architecture in the early visual system of a highly visual rodent;
Drivers and modulators from push-pull and balanced synaptic input;
Neuronal mechanisms underlying target selection with saccadic eye movements;
Cortico-cortical and thalamo-cortical information flow in the primate visual system;
Corollary discharge and spatial updating: when the brain is split, is space still unified?;
Drivers from the deep: the contribution of collicular input to thalamo-cortical processing;
Interacting competitive selection in attention and binocular rivalry;
Anatomical pathways that link perception and action;
The importance of modulatory input V1 activity and perception;
Dual routes to action: contributions of the dorsal and central streams to adaptive behavior;
A neurophilosophical slant on consciousness research