Probing the relationship between structure & function in the human thalamus: a contrast-focused, high-resolution study at 7T

Motivation: The thalamic nuclei play vital roles in brain function, but are challenging to image. Notably, clusters found by fMRI approaches do not fully match features from structural MRI studies. Goal(s): To clarify the existing mismatches via high-resolution fMRI, contrast-focused structural MRI, and atlas information, at 7T. Approach: From the same individual brains, we compared structural MRI, atlas delineations and functional clusters in the thalamus, using ICA and seed-based analysis of rs-fMRI. Results: Clusters from fMRI tend to coincide with nuclei labels from histological atlases, but deviate in some cases, while remaining more consistent with the individual’s structural MRI features. Impact: This study provides novel insights into the structural and functional organization of the thalamus. The ability to localize and characterize thalamic nuclei is of strong interest to basic and clinical neuroscience, and for development of effective non-invasive surgical targeting approaches.