Definition
The thalamus is the major relay structure in the forebrain for noxious and non-noxious sensory inputs. In the case of noxious stimuli, the thalamus distributes the incoming information to other specific cortical areas for proper processing of their discriminative, cognitive, and affective components. Recent neuroimaging techniques can effectively detect transient thalamic neuronal activation following the application of experimental stimuli that artificially replicate painful conditions in humans.
Characteristics
Thalamic neuronal activation is frequently observed in functional neuroimaging studies following experimental pain. Through the use of neuroimaging techniques, the role of the thalamus has been gradually dissected in the nociceptive CNS network. Under those studies, experimental pain resultant of different noxious stimuli has revealed a pattern of thalamic activation that depends on the type of stimuli...
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DaSilva, A.F.M., Hadjikhani, N. (2013). Human Thalamic Response to Experimental Pain (Neuroimaging). In: Gebhart, G.F., Schmidt, R.F. (eds) Encyclopedia of Pain. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28753-4_1792
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28753-4_1792
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