Thalamic pathways for active vision

Active vision requires the integration of information coming from the retina with that generated internally within the brain, especially by saccadic eye movements. Just as visual information reaches cortex via the lateral geniculate nucleus of the thalamus, this internal information reaches the cerebral cortex through other higher-order nuclei of the thalamus. This review summarizes recent work on four of these thalamic nuclei. The first two pathways convey internal information about upcoming saccades (a corollary discharge) and probably contribute to the neuronal mechanisms that underlie stable visual perception. The second two pathways might contribute to the neuronal mechanisms underlying visual spatial attention in cortex and in the thalamus itself.