ArticleMolecular imaging and biology2020
Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor Density in the "Higher-Order" Thalamus Projecting to the Prefrontal Cortex in Humans: a PET Study.
Article in Molecular imaging and biology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- The efficacy of reminiscence therapy on the cognition of older patients with cognitive impairment or dementia: a meta-analysis based on regulatory factors.Aging clinical and experimental research · 2026Pooled it
- Thalamo-cortical white matter connectivity-defined thalamic subarea volumes predict individual delay discounting.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Receptor architecture of the macaque lateral geniculate nucleus.Brain structure & function · 2026Article
- From network hub to therapeutic target: the role of mediodorsal thalamic nucleus in epilepsy.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Review
- Cholinergic network modulation in disinhibited eating behavior.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Smoking Progression and Nicotine-Enhanced Reward Sensitivity Predicted by Resting-State Functional Connectivity in Salience and Executive Control Networks.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2024Observational
- The Middle Managers: Thalamic and Cholinergic Contributions To Coordinating Top-Down And Bottom-Up Processing.Current opinion in behavioral sciences · 2024Article
- Nicotine-related beliefs induce dose-dependent responses in the human brain.Nature. Mental health · 2024Article
- Age- and sex-related differences in human α4β2* nicotinic acetylcholine receptor binding evaluated with [Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2024Article
- Thalamic volume and functional connectivity are associated with nicotine dependence severity and craving.Addiction biology · 2023Article
- Thalamocortical Mechanisms for Nostalgia-Induced Analgesia.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2022Article
- New Cognitive Neurotechnology Facilitates Studies of Cortical-Subcortical Interactions.Trends in biotechnology · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeThe parcellation of the thalamus into different nuclei involved in different corticothalamocortical loops reflects its functional diversity. The connections between the mediodorsal nucleus and the prefrontal cortex play a major role in cognition, particularly in the rapid processing of behaviorally relevant information. The thalamus is the brain region with the highest density in α4β2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, the main human nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subtype. The aim of this study was to investigate the possible role of the nicotinic cholinergic system in the thalamo-cortical loops measuring receptor density in different subregions of the thalamus, based on their cortical connectivity. PROCEDURES: We studied α4β2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors using positron emission tomography and [
resultsThe "prefrontal" thalamus, the subregion including the mediodorsal nucleus, had a significantly higher nicotinic acetylcholine receptor density than all other thalamic subregions. These findings were confirmed when analyzing solely the 12 healthy controls.
conclusionsThis particular neurochemical organization of the thalamus supports a major role of the cholinergic system in the loops between the thalamus and the prefrontal cortex. The highest nicotinic acetylcholine receptor density in the « higher-order thalamus » could partly explain the beneficial effect of acute nicotine on attentional and executive functions and possibly the pathophysiology of some neuropsychiatric disorders.
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