FUNCTIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE PRIMATE PULVINAR

The pulvinar contributes to the generation of visual salience. The pulvinar works to generate salience by opposing functional mechanisms. First, it appears to suppress information, which is irrelevant. Second, it facilitates those visual data that arise in important behavioral contexts. Thus the net output of the pulvinar are signals, which would be useful for perceptual as well as effector systems. Within the anterior portion of the pulvinar, there are at least three functional regions. The first, termed the inferior map pulvina (PI), is contained entirely within the cytoarchitectural inferior pulvinar and forms a complete map of the contralateral visual field. This region receives projections from both the superior colliculus and visual cortex. The second area, labeled the lateral map (PL), is located in the cytoarchitectural lateral pulvinar adjacent to PI, contains another complete map of the visual field, and also receives collicular and visual cortical afferents. A third region, which is termed “Pdm” is also located within the cytoarchitecturally defined lateral pulvinar but has poor topography. It is interconnected with cortical areas 7, MT and PO. © 1993, Academic Press Inc.