Functional organization of lemniscal and nonlemniscal auditory thalamus.
Thalamic nuclei of the mammalian auditory system exhibit remarkable parallelism in their anatomical pathways and the patterns of synaptic signalling. This has led to the theory that lemniscal, or core thalamocortical projection, carries tonotopically organized and auditory specific information whereas the nonlemniscal thalamocortical pathway forms part of an integrative system that plays an important role in polysensory integration, temporal pattern recognition, and certain forms of learning. Recent experimental evidence derived from molecular, cellular and behavioural studies indeed supports the conjecture that lemniscal and nonlemniscal pathways are involved in distinctive auditory functions.
Hu
B
B
Department of Clinical Neurosciences and Neuroscience Research Group, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 4N1, Canada. hub@ucalgary.ca
D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D001303:Auditory Cortex / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D001306:Auditory Pathways / Q000502:physiology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000502:physiology; D005829:Geniculate Bodies / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D009435:Synaptic Transmission / Q000502:physiology; D013788:Thalamus / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*