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This paired egg-shaped structure sits at the centre of the brain and routes input onward. The figure is taken from Encyclopaedia Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

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Yes. It sits on the Human Body shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

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The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

Mondo Knows Facts

Nearly all sensory signals pass through the thalamus

This paired egg-shaped structure sits at the centre of the brain and routes input onward Visual, auditory, touch and taste pathways all synapse in different thalamic nuclei before reaching the cortex. The exception is smell, which reaches the cortex more directly. The thalamus also receives massive feedback from the cortex, adjusting what gets passed on. It sits in Mondo's human body collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

Encyclopaedia Britannica

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

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Science trivia

More facts like this

Smell reaches the cortex without a thalamic stopOlfactory nerve fibres run from the nose straight to the bulb and on to cortex Nostrils alternate main airflow in a natural cycleErectile tissue congests and decongests nostrils every few hours continuously Taste buds replace their sensory receptor cells every two weeksGustatory cells undergo rapid turnover to maintain keen taste perception Proprioception gives the brain awareness of body position in spaceReceptors in muscles tendons and joints communicate limb location continuously A thick bundle of fibres links the two hemispheresAround two hundred million axons cross the midline in the corpus callosum Two cortical regions handle speech and comprehensionBroca's area organises speech output while Wernicke's area decodes language meaning

Tags: thalamus, senses, brain

Nearly all sensory signals pass through the thalamus: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: This paired egg-shaped structure sits at the centre of the brain and routes input onward. The figure is taken from Encyclopaedia Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a human body fact?: Yes. It sits on the Human Body shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.