Guarding the gateway to cortex with attention in visual thalamus

Kerry McAlonan (), James Cavanaugh and Robert H. Wurtz
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Kerry McAlonan: Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA
James Cavanaugh: Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA
Robert H. Wurtz: Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA

Nature, 2008, vol. 456, issue 7220, 391-394

Abstract: Francis Crick in the spotlight The striking effects of shifts of attention are well illustrated by the behaviour of children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. It is thought that attentional effects arise in the thalamus, but for the visual system it has proved difficult to determine precisely where the earliest stages of sensory processing take place. McAlonan et al. now demonstrate in experiments on macaque monkeys that spatial attentional modulation takes place in the lateral geniculate nucleus, and opposing effects in the adjacent thalamic reticular nucleus that makes inhibitory connections onto it. This reciprocal activity may be a mechanism for generating transient attention, in confirmation of a proposal made by Francis Crick nearly 25 years ago when his interests shifted from DNA to neuroscience. He hypothesized that a spotlight of attention was directed by a tiny nucleus in the brain, the thalamic reticular nucleus.

Date: 2008
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DOI: 10.1038/nature07382

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