Thalamic nuclei segmentation from T1-weighted MRI: Unifying and benchmarking state-of-the-art methods.

The thalamus and its constituent nuclei are critical for a broad range of cognitive, linguistic, and sensorimotor processes, and are implicated in many neurological and neurodegenerative conditions. However, the functional involvement and specificity of thalamic nuclei in human neuroimaging work is underappreciated and not well studied due, in part, to technical challenges of accurately identifying and segmenting nuclei. This challenge is further exacerbated by a lack of common nomenclature for comparing segmentation methods.

Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Patterns of Atrophy in Thalamic and Deep Gray Matter Nuclei in Frontotemporal Dementia.

Introduction: Frontotemporal dementia involves progressive atrophy in deep gray matter nuclei, including the thalamus and basal ganglia (such as the caudate, putamen, nucleus accumbens, and globus pallidus), which are critical for cognition and behavior. This study examined cross-sectional and longitudinal atrophy using a state-of-the-art multi-atlas segmentation method sTHOMAS.

Methods: T1-weighted MRI scans from 274 participants at baseline and 237 at follow-up obtained from the Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration Neuroimaging Initiative database were analyzed using sTHOMAS.

Track-Weighted Dynamic Functional Connectivity Profiles and Topographic Organization of the Human Pulvinar.

The human pulvinar is considered a prototypical associative thalamic nucleus as it represents a key node in several cortico-subcortical networks. Through this extensive connectivity to widespread brain areas, it has been suggested that the pulvinar may play a central role in modulating cortical oscillatory dynamics of complex cognitive and executive functions. Additionally, derangements of pulvinar activity are involved in different neuropsychiatric conditions including Lewy-body disease, Alzheimer's disease, and schizophrenia.

A roadmap towards standardized neuroimaging approaches for human thalamic nuclei.

The thalamus has a key role in mediating cortical-subcortical interactions but is often neglected in neuroimaging studies, which mostly focus on changes in cortical structure and activity. One of the main reasons for the thalamus being overlooked is that the delineation of individual thalamic nuclei via neuroimaging remains controversial. Indeed, neuroimaging atlases vary substantially regarding which thalamic nuclei are included and how their delineations were established.