A new study published in Science has identified the thalamus as a central player in how humans become consciously aware of visual information. By recording electrical activity directly from the brains of five patients during a visual task, scientists discovered that specific thalamic regions activate earlier and more strongly during moments of visual awareness. These findings suggest that the intralaminar and medial thalamic nuclei act as a gateway that initiates conscious perception by influencing the activity of the prefrontal cortex.