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The Nucleus Reuniens Of The Thalamus Sits At The Nexus Of A Hippocampus And Medial Prefrontal Cortex Circuit Enabling Memory And Behavior, Margriet J. Dolleman- Van Der Weel, Amy L. Griffin, Hiroshi T. Ito, Matthew L. Shapiro, Menno P. Witter, Robert P. Vertes, Timothy A. Allen

Environmental Health Sciences

The nucleus reuniens of the thalamus (RE) is a key component of an extensive network of hippocampal and cortical structures and is a fundamental substrate for cognition. A common misconception is that RE is a simple relay structure. Instead, a better conceptualization is that RE is a critical component of a canonical higher-order cortico-thalamo-cortical circuit that supports communication between the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and the hippocampus (HC). RE dysfunction is implicated in several clinical disorders including, but not limited to Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, and epilepsy. Here, we review key anatomical and physiological features of the RE based primarily on …