Thalamocortical Radiations - Motor Areas

Motor Areas

The primary motor cortex receives terminating thalamocortical fibers from the VL nucleus of the thalamus. This is the primary pathway involved in the transference of cerebellar input to the primary motor cortex. The VA projects widely across the inferior parietal and premotor cortex. Other Non-specific thalamocortical projections, those that originate in the dorsal-medial nuclei of the thalamus, terminate in the prefrontal cortex and have subsequent projections to associative premotor areas via collateral connections. The Cortico-basal ganglia-thalamocortical loop has been traditionally associated with reward-learning and though has also been noted by some researchers to have a modulatory effect on thalamocortical network functioning–this is due to inherent activation of the premotor areas connecting the VA nucleus with the cortex.