In monkeys, the integrity of the magnocellular subdivision of mediodorsal thalamus is important when using recent rewarded choices to promote persistence with a recently sampled choice during changing or uncertain reward guided-learning and decision-making tasks.

Transient suppression of activity in the macaque mediodorsal thalamus impairs adjustment of secondary reinforcer values and disrupts appropriate action selection in a reinforcer devaluation task; this profile is distinct from that of amygdala or subregions of orbitofrontal cortex.

Disconnection of the orbitofrontal cortex from the submedius nucleus but not the mediodorsal thalamus prevented rats to respond adaptively following action-outcome reversal, showing differential involvement of these thalamocortical circuits.

Compared to a sensory thalamocortical circuit, the mediodorsal thalamus preferentially innervates prefrontal cortical interneurons, and enhancing excitability of this thalamic structure drives prefrontal activity patterns that are dominated by inhibition.

A thalamic stroke in the mediodorsal nucleus is related to a spared familiarity.

Adaptive decision-making critically depends on antiparallel flows conveying distinct information within thalamocortical circuits, highlighting directionality of functional exchanges as a neural principle potentially at play in virtually any brain circuit with reciprocal projections.

Understanding how general anesthesia changes neural dynamics in the cortex and thalamus can lead to its safer use and shed light on the nature of consciousness.

Patterns of communication between the thalamus and the cortex are correlated with anesthesia-induced loss of consciousness and recovery.

Sleep spindles provide a temporal framework to organize the reactivation of behaviorally relevant CA1 cells and sparsely active cells in the limbic thalamus.

While the basal ganglia have long been thought to mediate learning through dopamine-dependent striatal plasticity, their regulation of motor thalamus plays an unexpected and critical role in reinforcement.