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Unveiling Functional Architecture of Human Thalamus: AStereoelectroencephalography Study.

Overview

Authors: Liankun Ren1,2,3, Di Wu1,2,3, Cuiping Xu3,4, Lei Qi5, Guangyuan Jin1,2,3, Xueyuan Wang3,4, Yueyang Cheng1,2,3, Jialin Du6, Siyi Wang1,2,3, Dongmei Hu1,2,3, Junliang Ge1,2,3, Yixi Zheng1,2,3, Yihe Wang4, Huaqiang Zhang4, Yang Dai4, Hao Yan4, Runshi Gao4, Ying Gao4, Zeyu Zhang7, Penghu Wei4, Yuping Wang1,2,3,8, Philippe Kahane9, Fabrice Bartolomei10,11, Tao Yu3,4, Guoguang Zhao2,3,4
ORCID iDs: Liankun Ren, Di Wu, Lei Qi, Guangyuan Jin, Xueyuan Wang, Yueyang Cheng, Jialin Du, Huaqiang Zhang, Runshi Gao, Penghu Wei, Yuping Wang, Philippe Kahane, Fabrice Bartolomei, Tao Yu, Guoguang Zhao
  1. Department of Neurology, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
  2. Clinical Research Center of Epilepsy, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
  3. National Center for Neurological Disorders, Beijing, China
  4. Department of Neurosurgery, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
  5. Department of Neurology, China Rehabilitation Research Center, Beijing, China
  6. Department of Pharmacy Phase I Clinical Trial Center, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
  7. Department of Science, The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  8. Institute of Sleep and Consciousness Disorders, Center of Epilepsy, Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
  9. Grenoble Alpes University Hospital Center, Grenoble Alpes University, Inserm, U1216, Grenoble Institute of Neurosciences, Grenoble, France
  10. Institut de Neurosciences des Systèmes, Inserm, INS, Aix‐Marseille University, Marseille, France
  11. Epilepsy and Clinical Neurophysiology Department, Timone Hospital, Assistance Publique‐Hôpitaux de Marseille, Marseille, France
Institutions: Capital Medical University (China); Xuan Wu Hospital of the Capital Medical University (China); China Rehabilitation Research Center (China); Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders (China); The University of Melbourne (Australia); Inserm (France); Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Grenoble (France); Grenoble Institute of Neurosciences (France); Université Grenoble Alpes (France); Aix-Marseille Université (France); Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Marseille (France); Institut de Neurosciences des Systèmes (France); Hôpital de la Timone (France)
Journal: MedComm, volume 7, issue 9, article e70931
Dates: received 19 July 2025; accepted 17 June 2026; published online 2 September 2026
Type: Research article · Language: English
License: CC BY
Identifiers: DOI 10.1002/mco2.70931 · PMID 42689157 · PMCID PMC13537012 · OpenAlex W7205002592
Open access: gold, a free copy (OpenAlex)
Status: code verified
Categories: human (organism), epilepsy (population)
Methods: Spectral & time-frequency, Statistics, Machine learning, Preprocessing, Connectivity, fMRI & imaging
Keywords: direct electrical stimulation, epilepsy, functional connectivity, thalamus
Topic: Neurological disorders and treatments (Neurology, Medicine), according to OpenAlex
Funding: National Natural Science Foundation of China (82371457, 2022YFC2503805); Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2024MH123)
Citations: not cited yet (Europe PMC); 101 references in the paper

Abstract

As a critical hub in the thalamo‐cortical circuit, the human thalamus engages in a spectrum of fundamental and advanced brain functions through widely distributed circuits. Clinically, dysfunction of thalamo‐cortical circuits is shown to be profoundly implicated in a wide range of neurological and psychiatric diseases. Nevertheless, the neuroanatomical substrates governing these functions of the thalamus have rarely been directly mapped in humans. Here, we overviewed the acute responses of direct electrical stimulation (DES) delivered to the distributed thalamus sites in 52 epilepsy patients admitted for presurgical stereoelectroencephalography. Specifically, DES of the thalamus evoked a broad spectrum of in‐situ responses spanning fundamental functions such as sensory and motor processing, extending to complex neural operations encompassing neurovegetative regulation, cognitive processing, emotional modulation, and multimodal responsiveness. Moreover, through the integration of DES with functional human connectome (n = 1000), we found an intra‐thalamic intrinsic functional network associated with each specific clinical response. Our data provide direct substantiation for the complex functional architecture of the human thalamus, advancing current understanding of its role and potentially culminating in targeted therapeutic strategies tailored to ameliorate symptom‐specific neural circuit disorders.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Code

No file of the authors' code could be read here: it is described below, and read at its source.

lead-dbs.org

License: none: the authors keep all their rights
State: the link answers, verified on 26 September 2026
Evidence: the link answers
Software Heritage: not checked
Found in: “Data Availability Statement”
Not found: README, license file, CITATION.cff, environment file, tests, continuous integration, documentation
Availability: 1 check, the latest on 26 September 2026: the link answers (HTTP 200)
  • 26 September 2026: the link answers (HTTP 200)
At the source: lead-dbs.org

The paper's code and data availability statement is in the Data section.

Tracing map

Proposed by the machine: these links were found in the paper and verified at the source, without human review. The map will receive a Zenodo DOI once one of the paper's authors has validated it with their ORCID.

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  • 1 repository of the authors' code, each at its verified commit, with its license and how the link was found in the paper;
  • 0 scripts, each with its path and the digest of its content;
  • no match between paragraphs and code yet;
  • neither the text of the paper nor the code itself.

Its JSON (tracing-map.json) is deposited on Zenodo with its DOI once the map is validated.

Data

Datasets cited

Data Availability Statement

The data are not publicly available as they contain information that could compromise research participant privacy or consent. The data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. The toolbox used for analyzing the functional connectivity is available within the Lead‐DBS software (www.lead‐dbs.org (http://www.lead-dbs.org)). Code used to analyze the dataset is openly available within the Lead‐DBS/‐Connectome software.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Versions

The history of this record: each version stored by the harvester or made by a correction of its authors or of the maintainers of its code, and what changed in its facts. The texts of the paper (its abstract, its availability statements) are not part of it; versions that changed only those are not listed.

Version 3, 28 September 2026

  • Funding: added National Natural Science Foundation of China: 82371457, 2022YFC2503805; Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province: ZR2024MH123

Version 1, 27 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 25 authors, 4 keywords, 100 references.

Cite

This paper

Ren, L., Wu, D., Xu, C., Qi, L., Jin, G., Wang, X., Cheng, Y., Du, J., Wang, S., Hu, D., Ge, J., Zheng, Y., Wang, Y., Zhang, H., Dai, Y., Yan, H., Gao, R., Gao, Y., Zhang, Z., . . . Zhao, G. (2026). Unveiling Functional Architecture of Human Thalamus: AStereoelectroencephalography Study. MedComm, 7(9), e70931. https://doi.org/10.1002/mco2.70931

BibTeX

@article{ren2026unveiling,
author = {Ren, Liankun and Wu, Di and Xu, Cuiping and Qi, Lei and Jin, Guangyuan and Wang, Xueyuan and Cheng, Yueyang and Du, Jialin and Wang, Siyi and Hu, Dongmei and Ge, Junliang and Zheng, Yixi and Wang, Yihe and Zhang, Huaqiang and Dai, Yang and Yan, Hao and Gao, Runshi and Gao, Ying and Zhang, Zeyu and Wei, Penghu and Wang, Yuping and Kahane, Philippe and Bartolomei, Fabrice and Yu, Tao and Zhao, Guoguang},
title = {{Unveiling Functional Architecture of Human Thalamus: AStereoelectroencephalography Study}},
journal = {MedComm},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
volume = {7},
number = {9},
pages = {e70931},
publisher = {Wiley},
issn = {2688-2663},
doi = {10.1002/mco2.70931},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1002/mco2.70931},
pmid = {42689157},
pmcid = {PMC13537012}
}

RIS

TY - JOUR
AU - Ren, Liankun
AU - Wu, Di
AU - Xu, Cuiping
AU - Qi, Lei
AU - Jin, Guangyuan
AU - Wang, Xueyuan
AU - Cheng, Yueyang
AU - Du, Jialin
AU - Wang, Siyi
AU - Hu, Dongmei
AU - Ge, Junliang
AU - Zheng, Yixi
AU - Wang, Yihe
AU - Zhang, Huaqiang
AU - Dai, Yang
AU - Yan, Hao
AU - Gao, Runshi
AU - Gao, Ying
AU - Zhang, Zeyu
AU - Wei, Penghu
AU - Wang, Yuping
AU - Kahane, Philippe
AU - Bartolomei, Fabrice
AU - Yu, Tao
AU - Zhao, Guoguang
TI - Unveiling Functional Architecture of Human Thalamus: AStereoelectroencephalography Study
T2 - MedComm
J2 - MedComm (2020)
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/02
VL - 7
IS - 9
SP - e70931
SN - 2688-2663
PB - Wiley
DO - 10.1002/mco2.70931
UR - https://doi.org/10.1002/mco2.70931
LA - en
ER -

CSL-JSON

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