Fig. 2: Anatomical connectivity of PUL, ANT, and VIM/VOP via neuroimaging and electrophysiology.

a Representative example of high-definition fiber tracking (HDFT) from PUL, ANT, and VIM/VOP nuclei (S01). b Volume of thalamocortical projections (mean ± standard error, n = 14 patients) from each nucleus to each cortical lobe normalized by the total volume of fibers projecting from each nucleus. c Group-level analysis of thalamocortical EPs. For each patient, the mean peak to peak amplitude is calculated across the contacts of a representative electrode for each cortical lobe. The normalized peak to peak amplitude of EP is color coded according to the stimulating nucleus evoking the response (blue for PUL, yellow for ANT, red for VIM/VOP). d, g, j Anatomical localization of SEEG implantation of representative patients (S01, S21, S13) that were tested for EPs with stimulation of PUL, ANT, and VIM/VOP, respectively. Each electrode is color-coded according to the brain lobe, and thalamic electrodes are indicated by an arrow. Figures were generated in Brainstorm⁸⁵. e, h, k Raw traces of stimulation triggered averages in different brain lobes from PUL, ANT, and VIM/VOP, respectively. Specific anatomical regions are: frontal operculum (pars opercularis), supplementary motor area, angular gyrus, inferior temporal sulcus (e, left to right); superior frontal sulcus, motor cingulate, posterior cingulate, posterior uncus (h, left to right); anterior cingulate, supplementary motor area, precuneus (k, left to right); f, i, l Violin plot of peak to peak amplitude of EPs in different brain lobes for PUL, ANT and VIM/VOP respectively. In all violin plot, the center line indicates the median, box bounds represent the first and third quartiles, whiskers extend to the most extreme data points within 1.5× the interquartile range, and points outside this range are plotted as outliers. For all panels, statistical significance and rejection of the null hypothesis of no difference of means with a 95% CI, was assessed with two-tail bootstrapping with Bonferroni correction. Triple asterisks indicate p << 0.0001.