SPECIAL ISSUE CONTRIBUTIONS OF THALAMIC NUCLEI TO DECLARATIVE MEMORY FUNCTIONING

In spite of the acknowledged role that the thalamus plays in declarative memory, details about the precise memory processes it is involved in and which are the structures of the thalamus that contribute to these processes remain unknown. An overview is presented of human clinical and animal experimental findings showing the involvement of the thalamus, at the level of white matter tracts and separate nuclei, in aspects of memory functioning. The region in the thalamus that contributes to declarative memory is the anterior and medial division, containing the anterior nuclei, the medial dorsal nucleus and the intralaminar and midline nuclei. A lesion to the anterior nuclei or their afferent white matter tract, the mammillothalamic tract, results in deficits of encoding of new stimuli. Lesions to the medial dorsal nucleus affect executive processes pertaining to declarative memory, such as the use of memory strategies for retrieval; damage to the intralaminar and midline nuclei results in decreased arousal and thus affects the declarative memory process. Based on anatomical and functional data, a theory is proposed of how the thalamus might play a role at different levels of declarative memory functioning. Firstly, the anterior and mediodorsal nucleus ar