The human thalamus has been suggested to be involved in executive function, based on animal studies and correlational evidence from functional neuroimaging in humans. Human lesion studies, examining behavioral deficits associated with focal brain injuries, can directly test the necessity of the human thalamus for executive function. The goal of our study was to determine the specific lesion location within the thalamus as well as the potential disruption of specific thalamocortical functional networks, related to executive dysfunction. We assessed executive function in 15 patients with focal thalamic lesions and 34 comparison patients with lesions that spared the thalamus. We found that patients with mediodorsal thalamic lesions exhibited more severe impairment in executive function when compared to both patients with thalamic lesions that spared the mediodorsal nucleus and to comparison patients with lesions outside the thalamus. Furthermore, we employed a lesion network mapping approach to map cortical regions that show strong functional connectivity with the lesioned thalamic subregions in the normative functional connectome. We found that thalamic lesion sites associated with more severe deficits in executive function showed stronger functional connectivity with ACC, dorsomedial pFC, and frontoparietal network, compared to thalamic lesions not associated with executive dysfunction. These are brain regions and functional networks whose dysfunction could contribute to impaired executive functioning. In aggregate, our findings provide new evidence that delineates a thalamocortical network for executive function.

根据动物研究和人类功能性神经影像学的相关证据，人类丘脑被认为与执行功能有关。人类病变研究，检查与局灶性脑损伤相关的行为缺陷，可以直接测试人类丘脑对执行功能的必要性。我们研究的目的是确定丘脑内的特定病变位置以及与执行功能障碍相关的特定丘脑皮质功能网络的潜在破坏。我们评估了 15 名丘脑局灶性病变患者和 34 名丘脑未受影响的对照患者的执行功能。我们发现，与保留内侧核的丘脑病变患者和丘脑外病变患者相比，患有丘脑内侧病变的患者在执行功能方面表现出更严重的损害。此外，我们采用病变网络映射方法来映射皮质区域，这些区域显示出与规范功能连接组中病变丘脑亚区域的强功能连接。我们发现，与执行功能障碍更严重的丘脑病变部位相比，与执行功能障碍无关的丘脑病变部位显示出与 ACC、背内侧 pFC 和额顶网络更强的功能连接。这些是大脑区域和功能网络，其功能障碍可能导致执行功能受损。合计，