Your Anterior Thalamic Radiations and Thalamus

3D Model

The ATR is a White Matter fiber bundle that connects the dorsomedial thalamic nucleus to the prefrontal cortex (mainly the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) through the anterior limb of the internal capsule, and is involved in executive functions and planning complex behaviors. The anterior nucleus of the thalamus receives information related to working memory from the hippocampus and projects it primarily to the anterior cingulate gyrus (14). ATR projections into the limbic system affect negative feelings such as sadness via the PANIC emotion system (15, 16). Previous DTT studies have demonstrated that individuals with bipolar disorder show significantly lower average fractional anisotropy values for ATR visualization compared with healthy controls.