Beijing Normal University-led researchers have identified specific high-order thalamic nuclei that drive human conscious perception by activating the prefrontal cortex. Their findings enhance understanding of how the brain forms conscious experience, offering new empirical support for theories that assign a central role to thalamic structures rather than cortical areas alone.

Consciousness has been described as existing in two distinct forms: the general state of being awake or asleep, and the specific contents of subjective awareness. Most studies investigating the neural basis of perception have focused on the cerebral cortex.

Subcortical structures, including high-order thalamic nuclei, remain comparatively unexplored, ill-accounting for how rapidly shifting sensory information becomes part of conscious experience.