The thalamocortical vestibular system in animals and humans.
Open accessAbstract
The vestibular system provides the brain with sensory signals about three-dimensional head rotations and translations. These signals are important for postural and oculomotor control, as well as for spatial and bodily perception and cognition, and they are subtended by pathways running from the vestibular nuclei to the thalamus, cerebellum and the "vestibular cortex." The present review summarizes current knowledge on the anatomy of the thalamocortical vestibular system and discusses data from electrophysiology and neuroanatomy in animals by comparing them with data from neuroimagery and neurology in humans. Multiple thalamic nuclei are involved in vestibular processing, including the ventroposterior complex, the ventroanterior-ventrolateral complex, the intralaminar nuclei and the posterior nuclear group (medial and lateral geniculate nuclei, pulvinar). These nuclei contain multisensory neurons that process and relay vestibular, proprioceptive and visual signals to the vestibular cortex. In non-human primates, the parieto-insular vestibular cortex (PIVC) has been proposed as the core vestibular region. Yet, vestibular responses have also been recorded in the somatosensory cortex (area 2v, 3av), intraparietal sulcus, posterior parietal cortex (area 7), area MST, frontal cortex, cingulum and hippocampus. We analyze the location of the corresponding regions in humans, and especially the human PIVC, by reviewing neuroimaging and clinical work. The widespread vestibular projections to the multimodal human PIVC, somatosensory cortex, area MST, intraparietal sulcus and hippocampus explain the large influence of vestibular signals on self-motion perception, spatial navigation, internal models of gravity, one's body perception and bodily self-consciousness.
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Sensory information at the brainstem is eventually relayed to the parieto-insular vestibular cortex, which spans the posterior insula and the temporoparietal junction for interoceptive and exteroceptive sensory processing, respectively.
“This sensory information at the brainstem is eventually relayed to the parieto-insular vestibular cortex, which spans the posterior insula and the temporoparietal junction for interoceptive and exteroceptive sensory processing, respectively (De Waele et al., 2001; Miller et al., 2008; Lopez and Blanke, 2011; Lenggenhager and Lopez, 2015).”
From How Processing of Sensory Information From the Internal and External Worlds Shape the Perception and Engagement With the World in the Aftermath of Trauma: Implications for PTSD (2021) · cites this paper as Lopez and Blanke, 2011
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Multisensory brain mechanisms of bodily self-consciousness.
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“The most consistent and robust findings of vestibular-cortical projections have involved the insula and the surrounding parietal operculum, temporoparietal junction (TPJ), superior temporal gyrus, somatosensory cortex, and mid-cingulate cortex (Guldin and Grüsser, 1998; Lopez and Blanke, 2011; Frank and Greenlee, 2018…”
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“This sensory information at the brainstem is eventually relayed to the parieto-insular vestibular cortex, which spans the posterior insula and the temporoparietal junction for interoceptive and exteroceptive sensory processing, respectively (De Waele et al., 2001; Miller et al., 2008; Lopez and Blanke, 2011; Lenggenha…”
BackgroundCarriot, J., Brooks, J. X., & Cullen, K. E. (2013) · The Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.3051-13.2013 · Cited by 86 · see citing works
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Neural basis of negativity bias in the perception of ambiguous facial expression
Ito, T., Yokokawa, K., Yahata, N., Isato, A., Suhara, T., & Yamada, M. (2017) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-017-00502-3 · Cited by 45 · see citing works
- Authors
- Lopez, C., & Blanke, O.
- Affiliations
- University Hospital of Geneva (CH)
- ORCID
- Blanke, Olaf
- Venue
- Brain Research Reviews
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2011-06
- Volume
- 67
- Issue
- 1-2
- Pages
- 119-146
- ISSN
- 0165-0173 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2130913250
- Cited by
- 565
- References
- 11
- Citations by year
- 2026: 41 · 2025: 39 · 2024: 33 · 2023: 41 · 2022: 29 · 2021: 43 · 2020: 37 · 2019: 38 · 2018: 32 · 2017: 43 · 2016: 36 · 2015: 42 · 2014: 36 · 2013: 48 · 2012: 18
- FWCI
- 3.06
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- infoscience.epfl.ch
- Locations
- Brain Research Reviews (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion)
- BORIS (University Library Bern) (submittedVersion)
- Infoscience (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) (submittedVersion)
- Infoscience (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung (125135)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Vestibular and auditory disorders
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Multisensory perception and integration
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Motor Control and Adaptation
- Keywords
- vestibular cortex, parieto-insular vestibular cortex, thalamic nuclei, intralaminar nuclei, somatosensory cortex, posterior parietal cortex, multisensory integration, self-motion perception, spatial navigation, body perception, vestibular processing, non-human primates
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Body Image, Cerebral Cortex, Postural Balance, Humans, Kinesthesis, Neural Pathways, Orientation, Space Perception, Thalamus, Vestibule, Labyrinth
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