Diencephalon · MD · substructure
Mediodorsal Nucleus
Nucleus mediodorsalis thalami
The thalamic partner of the prefrontal cortex: carries out working memory, decision-making and reward learning together with prefrontal circuits.
Anatomy
- In the medial thalamus, next to the third ventricle, medial to the internal medullary lamina.
- Reciprocally connected with the DLPFC, OFC and ACC; input: amygdala, ventral pallidum, SNr.
Functions
- Working memory and cognitive flexibility: sustaining prefrontal activity.
- Relaying reward and value information to the prefrontal cortex (limbic loop).
Clinical
- Schizophrenia: reduced mediodorsal nucleus volume and differences in prefrontal–thalamic connectivity.
- Contributes to memory impairment in Korsakoff syndrome.
In the model
How this structure is defined in the 3D model, and the data source.
Najdenovska et al. (2018) thalamic nuclei atlas (diffusion MRI clustering; ICBM 2009a symmetric template). Each voxel of the CerebrA thalamus was assigned to the most probable nucleus in these probability maps; because the atlas thalamus is about 20% larger than CerebrA’s, the borders were fitted to the shell (overlap of the two thalami: Dice 0.86–0.89).
References
This substructure’s card draws on the parent structure’s references: Thalamus.
This page is for education; it must not be used on its own for diagnosis or treatment decisions.
Last reviewed by the author: 12 October 2026
3D model: built from the MNI ICBM152 average brain and the CerebrA, HCP-MMP1.0, CIT168, Harvard AAN, SUIT and Najdenovska thalamus atlases. License details in the atlas.