ABSTRACT
Although there are reports in the early literature of lesions of the thalamus in association with disorders of perception, for example, Morsier's (1938) case of pulvinar lesion with “peduncular hallucinosis,” as well as with disorders of cognition, such as Grunthal's (1942) case of “thalamic dementia,” it was not until the monograph by Penfield and Roberts (1959) that attention was focused on the thalamus in relation to language organization. In this monograph, it was proposed that the thalamus, specifically the nucleus pulvinaris, was a way station in language processing between the anterior and posterior speech zones. While no persuasive evidence was presented in support of this hypothesis, it was at least consistent with the enormous expansion of pulvinar over the mammalian series leading to man, as well as with the presence of major fiber pathways between pulvinar and the posterior temporoparietal cortex.
