The paraventricular thalamic nucleus (Pvt) is a small but highly connected nucleus of the dorsal midline thalamus. The Pvt has garnered recent attention as a context-sensitive node within the thalamocortical arousal system that modulates state-dependent motivated behaviors. Once considered related to generalized arousal responses with non-specific impacts on behavior, accumulating evidence bolsters the contemporary view that discrete midline thalamic subnuclei belong to specialized corticolimbic and corticostriatal circuits related to attention, emotions, and cognition. However, the functional connectivity patterns of the human Pvt have yet to be mapped. Here we combined high-quality, high-resolution 7T and 3T resting state MRI data from 121 young adult participants from the Human Connectome Project and thalamic subnuclei atlas masks to investigate resting state functional connectivity of the human Pvt. The 7T Results demonstrated extensive positive functional connectivity with the brainstem, midbrain, ventral and dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), anterior and posterior cingulate, ventral striatum, hippocampus, and amygdala. These connections persist upon controlling for functional connectivity of the rest of the thalamus. Whole-brain contrasts provided further evidence that, compared to the rest of the thalamus or three nearby midline thalamic subnuclei, functional connectivity of the Pvt is strong with the hippocampus, amygdala, ventral and dorsal mPFC, and middle temporal gyrus. These findings suggest that, even during rest, the human Pvt is functionally coupled with many regions known to be structurally connected to rodent and non-human primate Pvt. Further, cosine similarity analysis results suggested the Pvt is integrated into the default mode network (DMN), an intrinsic connectivity network associated with episodic memory and self-referential thought. The current work provides a much-needed foundation for ongoing and future work examining the functional roles of the Pvt in humans.

中文翻译：

---

人类室旁丘脑核的功能连接：高场功能 MRI 的见解


丘脑室旁核（Pvt）是丘脑背侧中线的一个小但高度连接的核。 Pvt 作为丘脑皮质唤醒系统中调节状态依赖性动机行为的上下文敏感节点，最近引起了人们的关注。曾经被认为与对行为产生非特异性影响的广义唤醒反应有关，越来越多的证据支持了当代的观点，即离散的中线丘脑亚核属于与注意力、情绪和认知相关的专门皮质边缘和皮质纹状体回路。然而，人类列兵的功能连接模式尚未绘制出来。在这里，我们结合了来自人类连接组项目 121 名年轻成人参与者的高质量、高分辨率 7T 和 3T 静息态 MRI 数据和丘脑亚核图谱掩模，以研究人类列兵的静息态功能连接。 7T 结果表明与脑干、中脑、腹侧和背侧内侧前额皮质 (mPFC)、前扣带回和后扣带回、腹侧纹状体、海马体和杏仁核存在广泛的正功能连接。这些连接在控制丘脑其余部分的功能连接时持续存在。全脑对比提供了进一步的证据，表明与丘脑的其余部分或附近的三个丘脑中线亚核相比，Pvt 与海马、杏仁核、腹侧和背侧 mPFC 以及颞中回的功能连接很强。这些发现表明，即使在休息时，人类 Pvt 也与许多已知在结构上与啮齿动物和非人类灵长类 Pvt 相关的区域进行功能耦合。 此外，余弦相似性分析结果表明 Pvt 已集成到默认模式网络 (DMN) 中，这是一种与情景记忆和自我参照思维相关的内在连接网络。目前的工作为正在进行和未来研究列兵在人类中的功能作用的工作提供了急需的基础。