Grant: Project Grant

It is generally considered that the visual images that we are seeing are analyzed by a number of areas of the cortex, leading to a coherent perception of the world. This dogma has been challenged in recent years. There is now evidence that subcortical structures located in the thalamus are also involved in the complex processing yielding the perception of the visual world. My laboratory explores the possibility that neurons in the largest thalamic nucleus, the pulvinar, contribute to our capacity to analyze and interpret the various components of our visual environment, in close relation with cortical areas. This work is important not only to understand how our brain can perceive and interpret an image (yielding to an appropriate action) but also to understand pathologies in which communication between the cortex and the thalamus is altered, such as in schizophrenia.