Fig. 4.

Proposed anterior thalamic participation in cognition. Hypothesised mapping of three interleaving, interconnected, ‘cognitive zones’ of anterior thalamic nuclear influence. Each zone maps cognitive functions — spatial processing, attention, and memory to anterior nuclei (as implicated by lesion, recording, anatomical tracing, or other evidence) illustrating their extensive contributions to multiple aspects of cognition. This mapping of functions implies fast-acting, dynamic relations between spatial processing, attentional, and mnemonic processes; spatial processing and attention are deployed during episodic memory encoding and consolidation (as they are contributory processes to memory), but equally they may well be independent of memory during other tasks.