title: Pondering the Pulvinar.
abstract: While the function of the pulvinar remains one of the least explored among the thalamic nuclei despite occupying the most thalamic volume in primates, it has long been suspected to play a crucial role in attentive stimulus processing. In this issue of Neuron, Zhou et al. (2016) use simultaneous pulvinar-visual cortex recordings and pulvinar inactivation to provide evidence that the pulvinar is essential for intact stimulus processing, maintenance of neuronal oscillatory dynamics, and mediating the effects of attention.
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Neuroscience and Schizophrenia Program, Nathan Kline Institute, Orangeburg, NY 10962, USA; Department of Psychiatry, NYU School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, USA. Electronic address: plakatos@nki.rfmh.org.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lakatos
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Neuroscience and Schizophrenia Program, Nathan Kline Institute, Orangeburg, NY 10962, USA.
authors.forename: Monica N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: O'Connell
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Neuroscience and Schizophrenia Program, Nathan Kline Institute, Orangeburg, NY 10962, USA.
authors.forename: Annamaria
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Barczak
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D020649:Pulvinar / Q000502:physiology*; D014785:Vision, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000502:physiology*