The role of the thalamus in functional neurosurgery

The human thalamus has been the focus of much interest as a target organ for the stereotactic surgical modification of particularly pain and movement disorders. The sites receiving the greatest attention are portions of Vc, Vim, Vop, and the medial thalamus. As such procedures require physiologic corroboration of target site, a considerable literature has arisen concerned with electrical stimulation and microelectrode recordings within them. Not only do the physiologic observations accomplish the desired localization, but they also allow an insight into normal and pathologic thalamic physiology. Yet vast areas of the thalamus remain unstudied enigmas.