This is an interesting question, one I've wondered about because of AM's close relationship with cingulate cortex. Do you have access to Vogt & Gabriel's 1993 book Neurobiology of Cingulate Cortex and Limbic Thalamus? The second chapter especially may prove helpful. AM is part of a group of anterior thalamic nuclei, and part of the limbic thalamus. It's been implicated in spatial memory, but I don't think its function is reallysettled.

Thank you Sarah. Have no access to the book, just to papers. Will read yours

Very interesting question indeed!

Beyond the relevant book above-mentionned, there are other interesting references available in both rodents and humans :

1) rodents

- Jankowski et al., 2013 : http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24009563

- Wright et al., 2013 : http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23504917

- Aggleton & Nelson, 2014 : http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763414002115 (look figure 2 in particular and related text)

2) humans :

- Child & Benarroch, 2013 : http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24142476

Those are recent references but more empiral work is required since in rodents, usually most lesion studies have focussed on the whole anterior region. There are a few attempts to dissociate the AV from the AM but both lesions led to the same deficits (Byatt & Dalrymple-Alford, 1996 ; see also Van groen et al., 2002).

The connections are documented with great details by Shibata, von Groen and Vogt and Aggleton in colleagues (including in monkeys for the latter).

Hope that helps.

Thank you very much !

In general most research in rodents has focussed on spatial paradigms because it is easier to implement with rodents but some good evidence also indicate that, like in humans, the role of the anterior thalamus in general (ie not limited to tha AM) is not limited to the spatial domain.  Here are those evidence: Wolff et al., 2006 ; Marchand et al., 2013 (you can find both papers in my profile) but also a very interesting work from Law et al 2012 ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23025833 ).

Thank you very much for the links. Similar to your work, I would also expect some ''sorting'' of information in AM depending on the goal-related context.

As MDT deals with value-based selection and deselection of choices in working memory, AM might select incoming hippocampal information depending on the current task goals provided by PFC ?

For binding information linked to each event, task or goal the hippocampus is needed. Hippocampus binds information about separate events/situations and different task sets/rules or outcomes linked to them. The coupling between events, actions and outcomes depends on context and on current goals formed by PFC. So hippocampus automatically feeds to PFC via AM the stored information on event/context-outcomes links. It also binds together features that define each task-set, task rules and what outcomes they predict (are linked to). for example different situations can be combined with different goals/plans and appropriate rules to reach task goals.

Then the anterodorsal thalamic nucleus AD (reciprocally connected with retrosplenial cortex and hippocampus) might deal with selection based on timing of events in our autobiographic memory ?

Well all that is certainly very interesting even though quite a bit speculative. :)

At least in rodents, the AD is not the only part strongly associated with the retrospenial cortex (the AM and AV as well) and the reciprocal connections with the hippcoampus are not symmetrical: there is a v strong direct innervation from the hippocampus to the the anterior thalamus through the fornix but the other way is more limited and in fact essentially concerns the subicular complex, not the hippocampus proper (some direct connections have been reported as well though).

I personally believe that the anterior thalamus is part of a "relational" system with the hippocampus and that specific thalamocortical loops between the this region and the retrosplenial cortex is essential for this circuit. The MD one the other hand, would have a more "executive" role in adaptive behaviours which is clearly associated with decision making based on values.

Back to the anterior thalamus, you might be interested in looking into details the Jankowski et al. review (link above, from Aggleton group) which propose specific roles for each anterior subregions, at least in terms of spatial processing.