Selective attention is a fundamental cognitive function that guides behavior by selecting and prioritizing salient or relevant sensory information of our environment. Despite early evidence and theoretical proposal pointing to an implication of thalamic control in attention, most studies in the past two decades focused on cortical substrates, largely ignoring the contribution of subcortical regions as well as cortico-subcortical interactions. Here, we suggest a key role of the pulvinar in the selection of salient and relevant information via its involvement in priority maps. Prioritization may be achieved through a pulvinar-mediated generation of alpha oscillations, which may then modulate neuronal gain in thalamo-cortical circuits. Such mechanism might orchestrate the synchrony of cortico-cortical interaction, by rendering neural communication more effective, precise and selective. We propose that this theoretical framework will support a timely shift from the prevailing cortico-centric view of cognition to a more integrative perspective of thalamic contributions to attention and executive control processes.

中文翻译：

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Pulvino-皮层互动：控制注意力的综合作用。

选择性注意是一种基本的认知功能，通过选择和优先考虑环境中的显着或相关的感官信息来指导行为。尽管有早期证据和理论建议指出应注意丘脑控制，但在过去的二十年中，大多数研究都集中在皮质基质上，很大程度上忽略了皮质下区域以及皮质-皮质下相互作用的作用。在这里，我们建议通过在优先地图中的参与，在重要和相关信息的选择中起关键作用。优先级化可以通过α介导的震荡介导的生成来实现，然后可以调节丘脑-皮质回路中的神经元增益。这种机制可能会协调皮层互动的同步性，通过使神经沟通更加有效，精确和有选择性。我们建议，该理论框架将支持及时从占主导地位的以皮质为中心的认知观点转变为丘脑对注意力和执行控制过程的更综合观点。