IUBio

role of thalamus in intellectual development

Didier A. Depireux didier at Glue.umd.edu
Tue May 25 14:01:13 EST 1999


Dave L (dave at lud-low.freeserve.co.uk) wrote:

: My daughter has thalamic brain damage and her case indicates a
: possible role for the thalamus in the development of intellect.
I am sorry to hear about your predicament. I wish you all the help you can
get in the future. Unfortunately, medicine is not a science so much as it
is a collection of recipes that work, as I am sure you know.

: 1) does the thalamus have an important role in intellectual
: development/learning ability and if so, what role?

In the sense that except for smell, no sensory pathway makes it to cortex
without first going through thalamus, it has an important role. If the
information that makes it to cortex is impoverished for whatever reason,
and if what comes out of cortex is only partially transmitted, there will
be problems.

An old view has it that thalamus acts as a gate to cortex, modulated by
your state of awareness. Even in that simplistic view, thalamus would have
a role in intellectual development. The truth is that no one understands
the role of the thalamo-cortical loop, so I don't think anyone is likely to
give you a correct answer to your question.

					Sorry,

						Didier

--
Didier A Depireux                              didier at isr.umd.edu
Neural Systems Lab                 http://www.isr.umd.edu/~didier
Institute for Systems Research          Phone: 301-405-6557 (off)
University of Maryland                                -6596 (lab)
College Park MD 20742 USA                     Fax: 1-301-314-9920



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