Principal subcortical afferents

An extensive review of the anatomy, physiology and neurochemistry of the thalamus has recently been published in this Handbook Series (Jones, 1998). The present review focuses on the main excitatory inputs to the thalamus, i.e. the principal subcortical afferents and the corticothalamic input. 

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Fig. 7. Schematic drawing of a transverse section through the forebrain depicting pathways likely to use glutamate as a neurotransmitter. I = principal subcortical afferents to the thalamus from. somatosensory relay nuclei and the spinal cord (a), cerebellar nuclei (h). and retina (c) 2 = intrinsic neurons and retinal inputs to the hypothalamus 3 = thalamocortical inputs 4 = corticothalamic inputs 5 = cortical inputs to the basal ganglia and other areas in the brainstem and spinal cord 6 = associational and commi.ssural connections in the cerebral cortex. For further details, see Sections 3.5-3.9.

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