Scholarlink

<p>The neural basis of consciousness remains incompletely understood. While cortical mechanisms of conscious perception have been extensively investigated in humans, the role of subcortical structures, including the thalamus, remains less explored. Here, we elucidate the causal contributions of different thalamic regions to conscious perception using transcranial low-intensity focused ultrasound (LIFU) neuromodulation. We hypothesize that modulating distinct thalamic regions alters perceptual outcomes derived from Signal Detection Theory. We apply LIFU to healthy human anterior (transmodal-dominant) and posterior (unimodal-dominant) thalamic regions, further subdivided into ventral and dorsal regions, during a near-threshold visual perception task. We show that high duty cycle modulation of the ventroanterior (VA) part of thalamus enhances object recognition sensitivity. Sensitivity enhancement magnitude correlates with the core-matrix cell compositions of the stimulated thalamic region. Connectivity analysis of a large-scale functional magnetic resonance imaging dataset confirms strong transmodal connectivity of VA thalamus with frontoparietal and default-mode networks. We also demonstrate target-invariant effects of high duty cycle LIFU disrupting object categorization accuracy. These findings provide causal insight into the cytoarchitectural and functional organization of the thalamus that shape human visual experience, especially the role of matrix-cell-rich, transmodal-dominant VA thalamus.</p>

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

Role of thalamus in human conscious perception revealed by low-intensity focused ultrasound neuromodulation

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2025年11月28日

查看全文
  • Hyunwoo Jang,
  • Panagiotis Fotiadis,
  • George A. Mashour,
  • Anthony G. Hudetz,
  • Zirui Huang

摘要

The neural basis of consciousness remains incompletely understood. While cortical mechanisms of conscious perception have been extensively investigated in humans, the role of subcortical structures, including the thalamus, remains less explored. Here, we elucidate the causal contributions of different thalamic regions to conscious perception using transcranial low-intensity focused ultrasound (LIFU) neuromodulation. We hypothesize that modulating distinct thalamic regions alters perceptual outcomes derived from Signal Detection Theory. We apply LIFU to healthy human anterior (transmodal-dominant) and posterior (unimodal-dominant) thalamic regions, further subdivided into ventral and dorsal regions, during a near-threshold visual perception task. We show that high duty cycle modulation of the ventroanterior (VA) part of thalamus enhances object recognition sensitivity. Sensitivity enhancement magnitude correlates with the core-matrix cell compositions of the stimulated thalamic region. Connectivity analysis of a large-scale functional magnetic resonance imaging dataset confirms strong transmodal connectivity of VA thalamus with frontoparietal and default-mode networks. We also demonstrate target-invariant effects of high duty cycle LIFU disrupting object categorization accuracy. These findings provide causal insight into the cytoarchitectural and functional organization of the thalamus that shape human visual experience, especially the role of matrix-cell-rich, transmodal-dominant VA thalamus.