Selective expertise rearing (SER) alters the tuning properties of dLGN neurons. Credit score: Takuma Sonoda et al
Years in the past, as a neurology resident, Chinfei Chen, MD, Ph.D., cared for a 20-year-old girl who had skilled a really small stroke, affecting solely the thalamus.
“It was so tiny that she wouldn’t have noticed any symptoms had the stroke been in any other area of the brain,” says Chen, who’s now an investigator on the F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Heart at Boston Youngsters’s Hospital. “But she lost her ability to form new memories. I could talk to her for hours, leave the room, come back, and she wouldn’t remember me.”
The cerebral cortex and hippocampus are historically considered as the important thing constructions in reminiscence, however on this affected person, these areas had been undamaged. The expertise made Chen curious to be taught extra in regards to the thalamus.
Situated deep within the mind, the thalamus is the mind’s central relay hub, receiving info from the surface world and transmitting it to many areas of the cortex. Maybe as a result of it is tougher to entry, it has been underexplored. However Chen thinks the thalamus is crucial to cognitive operate, particularly throughout early growth when mind connections are first forming.
Neuronal connections—and the flexibility to replace them as wanted—have primarily been studied on the cortex degree. In a research simply revealed within the journal Neuron, Chen and her colleagues present that the thalamus can replace its personal connections, independently of the cortex.
Learning connections within the thalamus
Newer applied sciences that may selectively activate and monitor cells are actually affording a greater glimpse of the thalamus. “There’s been an explosion of studies of smaller and deeper brain areas that were not well studied before,” says Takuma Sonoda, Ph.D., within the Chen Lab, the research’s first writer.
The researchers positioned mice in a managed visible setting, presenting them with horizontal strains shifting in numerous instructions (vertically, horizontally, or diagonally). They then recorded the exercise of neurons within the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), the a part of the thalamus that relays visible info to the visible cortex.
The recordings confirmed that cell populations throughout the LGN modified their response patterns primarily based on the animals’ visible expertise. This discovering was surprising as plasticity, the flexibility of neuronal connections to alter, has historically been attributed to the cortex.
“Providing different experiences can change the connectivity of the thalamus, and these changes in connectivity can be long-lasting,” explains Chen. “This was especially true during development, but we also saw plasticity in adult mice.”
Notably, the circuits that modified had been these connecting the retina to thalamus, not these connecting the cortex to thalamus—proof that the thalamus was rewiring.
A special approach on neurodevelopmental issues
Chen believes her crew’s findings are related to youngsters with neurodevelopmental issues, which frequently contain altered mind connections. Some therapies—resembling repetitively exposing youngsters with autism to completely different conditions to get them accustomed to them—could also be altering these connections, strengthening sure pathways over others.
“If you want to alter connectivity across many cortical areas, it may be beneficial to intervene at the level of the thalamus, before signals are broadcast throughout the brain,” says Chen. She means that one method to affect connectivity within the thalamus is by modulating neurotransmitters, utilizing present medication.
“Neuromodulators could alter the processing of sensory information including visual processing, which can be affected in neurodevelopmental disorders,” she says. “A lot of studies are looking at expression patterns of neuromodulatory receptors on thalamic neurons, and it’s possible we could find pharmaceuticals that are more specific to the thalamus.”
The thalamus may be a extra strategic goal to concentrate on in bettering cognitive operate. “If you could change connectivity in the thalamus before information is transmitted throughout the rest of the brain, you could target one place rather than multiple areas of the brain. The thalamus is a very key area of the brain that shouldn’t be neglected.”
Extra info:
Takuma Sonoda et al, Expertise influences the refinement of function selectivity within the mouse major visible thalamus, Neuron (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2025.02.023
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Youngsters’s Hospital Boston
Quotation:
The thalamus: A possible therapeutic goal for neurodevelopmental issues (2025, April 7)
retrieved 7 April 2025
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