Abstract
The thalamus is an essential element for sensory information processing, serving as a link between peripheral sensory stimuli and cortical circuits. Consequently, the development of thalamocortical (TC) projections has been a central focus in systems neuroscience. Although substantial progress has been made in understanding the mechanisms guiding thalamic axon navigation from the diencephalon to the cortex, our understanding of the processes underlying sensory modality specificity in TC circuits remains incomplete. Modern genomic, physiological and imaging approaches have yielded exciting results, providing novel insights into the specialization of visual, somatosensory and auditory TC circuits. Recent findings have shed light on the genetic and spontaneous activity mechanisms involved in the formation of distinct sensory modalities, rekindling the interest in the thalamus and opening new research perspectives on the development of this diencephalic structure.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by grants from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (ERC-2021-ADG-101054313 SPONTSENSE), PID2021-127112NBI00 from the MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/ and ERDF ‘A way to make Europe’ and Generalitat Valenciana, Conselleria d’Educació, Universitats, i Ocupació (PROMETEO 2021/052) to G.L.-B. This work was also funded by the Spanish State Research Agency (AEI/10.13039/501100011033), through the ‘Severo Ochoa’ Center of Excellence grant to the IN (CEX2021-001165-S). T.G.-V. was supported by the ‘la Caixa’ Foundation (LCF/BQ/PR23/11980050).
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Guillamón-Vivancos, T., Aníbal-Martínez, M., Puche-Aroca, L. et al. Sensory modality-specific wiring of thalamocortical circuits. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 26, 623–641 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-025-00945-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-025-00945-y
