Figure 3.

A, Divergence, convergence, and gating are essential functional principles of thalamocortical circuits. Divergent and convergent thalamocortical pathways may promote parallel functioning and integrative processing at the cortical level, respectively. In addition, returning corticothalamic pathways are able to gate relevant thalamocortical inputs through lateral inhibition at the level of the TRN. This architecture may contribute to the maintenance (B) or updating (C) of cortical representations. In the latter case, some mental constructs may no longer be relevant (outlined in gray dashed line), whereas others become more prominent (blue solid arrows).