Editorial: Thalamic Interactions With the Basal Ganglia: Thalamostriatal System and Beyond

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Jared B Smith, Target Discovery, REGENXBIO Inc; Yoland Smith, Emory University; Laurent Venance, Université PSL; Glenn DR Watson, Duke University
• Language: English
• Date: 2022-03-25
• Publisher: FRONTIERS MEDIA SA
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2022 Smith, Smith, Venance and Watson.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2022.883094
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: FRONTIERS IN SYSTEMS NEUROSCIENCE
• Volume: 16
• Start Page: 883094
• End Page: 883094
• Keywords: PATCH; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; NEURONS; thalamus; Neurosciences; INPUTS; MATRIX COMPARTMENTS; thalamostriatal; basal ganglia; PROJECTION; Science & Technology; Neurosciences & Neurology; NUCLEI; deep brain stimulation (DBS); cortico-basal ganglia-thalamic
• Research Categories: Psychology, General

Abstract

The basal ganglia have a long history of interest owing to their involvement across a wide array of neurological and psychiatric diseases (Redgrave et al., 2010). Much of the literature focuses on the role of the striatum, the main input nucleus to the basal ganglia, and its inputs from the cerebral cortex. Research on the role of thalamic inputs to the striatum has grown in recent years (Ding et al., 2010; Smith et al., 2014; Alloway et al., 2017; Assous et al., 2017; Unzai et al., 2017), as well as thalamic innervation of other basal ganglia nuclei (Deschenes et al., 1996; Mastro et al., 2014; Watson et al., 2021). In this special issue of Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience, we have collected a series of articles that illustrate the growing attention paid to the interactions between the thalamus and the basal ganglia. Two themes emerge from this collection. The first is a focus on more thoroughly elucidating the anatomy of the thalamus and the basal ganglia, including their connectivity; a topic that has also seen a renewed attention in the literature over the last decade with the advent of modern viral tracing methods in transgenic animals (Watabe-Uchida et al., 2012; Wall et al., 2013; Smith et al., 2016; Klug et al., 2018; Aoki et al., 2019; Foster et al., 2021; Lu et al., 2021; Watson et al., 2021). Along this theme, Kumar et al.; Kwon et al. employ magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in high-strength magnetic fields to exquisitely dissect the anatomy of the thalamus and basal ganglia in the human brain. The second major theme of this special issue emerges from De Groote and de Kerchove d'Exaerde; Magnusson and Leventhal; Xiao and Roberts; Kato et al., which focus on the functional role of thalamic interactions with the basal ganglia in emotion, cognition, learning, a