Organization and topography of sensory responses in the internal capsule and nucleus ventralis caudalis found during stereotactic surgery

Abstract

With the aid of a computer graphic technique, data gathered from exploratory stimulation of the diencephalon in 130 stereotactic operative procedures indicate that some sensory fibers in the capsule are parallel to motor fibers at basal thalamic levels and occupy a position medial to motor fibers. In addition, stimulus responses which probably represent thalamocortical projections from S II somesthetic thalamus were found to lie in a capsular zone rostral to the motor bundle. The organization of S I somesthetic thalamus was found to agree with the previous finding of Tasker et al. and some of these fibers project within the motor bundle to cortical motor areas.