中国神经再生研究(英文版) ›› 2026, Vol. 21 ›› Issue (9): 4045-4050.doi: 10.4103/NRR.NRR-D-25-00928

• 综述:脑损伤修复保护与再生 • 上一篇    下一篇

丘脑网状核在精神分裂症病理生理中的作用

  

  • 出版日期:2026-09-15 发布日期:2026-05-16

Thalamic reticular nucleus in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia

Gonzalo Flores1, *, David J. Apam-Castillejos1, Hannaford Edwards2, Victor M. Magdaleno-Madrigal3, Juan Nacher4, 5, 6, Hiram Tendilla-Beltrán7, Lalit K. Srivastava2, *   

  1. 1Instituto de Fisiología, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP), Puebla, Mexico; 
    2Douglas Hospital Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University,
    Montreal, QC, Canada; 
    3Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatría Ramón de la Fuente Muñiz, Mexico City, Mexico; 
    4Neurobiology Unit, Institute for Biotechnology and Biomedicine (BIOTECMED), Universitat de Valencia, Valencia, Spain; 
    5Spanish National Network for Research in Mental Health, CIBERSAM, Madrid, Spain; 
    6Fundación Investigación Hospital Clínico de Valencia, INCLIVA, Valencia, Spain; 
    7Centro de Investigación en Reproducción Animal, Cinvestav-UAT, Tlaxcala, Mexico
  • Online:2026-09-15 Published:2026-05-16
  • Contact: Gonzalo Flores, MD, PhD, gonzaloflores56@gmail.com; Lalit K. Srivastava, PhD, lalit.srivastava@mcgill.ca.
  • Supported by:
    This work was supported by CONAHCYT-Mexico (252808) to GF and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (PJT 190246) to LKS. The funding institution did not play any additional role on experimental design or further decision on the manuscript handling.

摘要:

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4100-2104 (Gonzalo Flores); 

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1222-3223 (Lalit K. Srivastava)

Abstract: Mechanistic analyses on schizophrenia have traditionally focused on corticolimbic structures such as the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and amygdala, given their established roles in cognition. However, the thalamus, a critical hub that interconnects these regions, has garnered comparatively less attention. Of particular interest is the thalamic reticular nucleus, which plays a crucial role in cognition and sensory processing through its connections with the dorsomedial thalamic nucleus and the prefrontal cortex. A potential role of the thalamic reticular nucleus in schizophrenia has been suggested in a few reports; however, recent analyses have identified a specific link between the thalamic reticular nucleus and layer 5 neurons of the prefrontal cortex, a relationship highlighted by our group’s earlier findings from 2012, which demonstrated that bilateral thalamic reticular nucleus lesions in adult rats caused neuronal atrophy in these cortical neurons. Building on this foundation, this manuscript explores the role of the thalamic reticular nucleus in schizophrenia neurobiology by reviewing its functional neuroanatomy, its integration within the corticolimbic system, and mechanisms of its potential involvement in the disease. This hypothesis is further developed by describing our novel findings from rats with neonatal ventral hippocampus lesion, widely considered a developmental model for schizophrenia. For the first time, we report dendritic spine pathology in thalamic reticular nucleus neurons, characterized by reduced spine density and a lower proportion of mushroom spines. Furthermore, we demonstrate a decrease in the density of parvalbumin-positive cells within the thalamic reticular nucleus in the neonatal ventral hippocampus lesion model. Together, these findings suggest significant alterations in the corticolimbic network and position the thalamic reticular nucleus as a complex yet promising mechanistic contributor to the neurobiology of schizophrenia.

Key words: animal model, corticolimbic system, dendritic spines, gamma-aminobutyric acid, glutamate, mushroom spines, parvalbumin-positive cells, prefrontal cortex, psychosis, pyramidal neurons, thalamo-cortical loop