In article <e16hap$a1q$1 at inews.gazeta.pl>,
Marcin Ciesielski <mkciesielski at nospam.op.pl> wrote:
> Who knows what is the role of the claustrum and its connections? The
> information about them found in a few articles isn't clear and there are
> many hypotheses including ones concerning such sophisticated processes
> as visual perception, attention or even cognition - but people with
> damaged claustra seem to function normally and no impairment may be
> observed.
> What function of the claustrum is postulated in current publications?
As far as I know, nobody has much idea what the claustrum does. Francis
Crick's last paper, with Christof Koch, suggested the claustrum may be
the seat of consciousness, but it was an argument based on analogy and
wishful thinking in my opinion.
It's frustrating because the connectivity and cellular makeup of the
claustrum are quite well understood, but nobody can ascribe any sort of
function to it. I'd love to hear if I'm wrong, though.
Cheers, MK.
