Lateral thalamus bridges multisensory processing and naturalistic behaviors
Multisensory inputs converge in the lateral thalamus (LT), which in turn sends projections to cortical and limbic brain networks. This input–output organization makes the LT a key hub for regulating sensory-driven behavioral and hormonal responses.
Emerging evidence suggests that the LT is also involved in processing non-sensory features of multisensory stimuli, including salience, affective value, and social relevance. Inhibiting the LT does not completely abolish naturalistic behaviors but reduces the likelihood of their occurrence, suggesting a role for the LT in behavior initiation.
The researchers propose that the LT contributes to enhancing, inhibiting, or associating sensory and non-sensory information from different sensory stimuli coinciding in time to form a cohesive internal representation of the environment to gate memory formation and behavior.
https://www.cell.com/trends/neurosciences/fulltext/S0166-2236(24)00227-3
