A realistic computer model of the thalamus was programmed in Matlab. Once trained the model is able of performing pattern completion of uncompleted input patterns. These pattern completion task is proposed to also exist in the real thalamus, being the responsible of all the hallucinatory processes that are generated when any sensorial input to the thalamus is interrupted. The blind spot, Charles Bonnet syndrome, hallucinations by psychedelic drugs, musical hallucinations, phantom limbs etc. are all hallucinations of different species that are proposed to be produced at a thalamic level by a pattern completion mechanism on damaged or uncompleted sensorial patterns. Positive symptoms of schizophrenia are also postulated to be the consequence of a pattern completion process performed by the thalamus in areas where the inputs are not sensorial but of prefrontal and temporal origin.
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