A 45-year-old female patient presents to the emergency room with a headache and complains of abnormal sensations on the left side of her body. She claims that the sensory changes came on rapidly in the last few hours. Her laboratory reports come back normal, a spinal tap reveals normal cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and her mental ability seems good. You perform a neurological examination and find she has greatly reduced sensation on the entire left side of her body, including her face. The sensory loss includes all modalities. The motor examination is normal, as is her visual examination and hearing examination. Based on the neurological findings, which of the following thalamic nuclei would be involved?
- lateral and medial geniculate nuclei
- lateral dorsal and lateral posterior nuclei
- pulvinar
- ventral anterior and ventral lateral nuclei
- ventral posterior lateral and ventral posterior medial nuclei
Answer(s): E
Explanation:
The ventral posterior lateral (VPL) and ventral posterior medial (VPM) nuclei are sensory relay thalamic nuclei. The lateral and medial geniculate nuclei (choice A) are respectively concerned with visual and auditory sensory information. The lateral dorsal (LD) and lateral posterior (LP) nuclei (choice B), and the pulvinar (choice C) are association or multimodal relay nuclei. The ventral anterior (VA) and ventral lateral (VL) are motor relay nuclei.
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