Lateral Geniculate Body

Geniculate comes from the Latin geniculatus, meaning “knee-shaped” or “bent like a knee.” 

The lateral geniculate body has a curved/elongated appearance on the posterolateral thalamus.

The lateral geniculate body (also called the lateral geniculate nucleus or LGN) is a key relay station in the thalamus that processes and transfers visual information from the retina to the primary visual cortex. 

The classical pathway is:

Retina → optic nerve → optic chiasm → optic tract → LGB → optic radiation → primary visual cortex (V1)

A particularly important discovery was that the LGB maintains an organized representation of the visual field.

The human LGB contains six principal layers:

• Layers 1–2: Magnocellular (M)
• Layers 3–6: Parvocellular (P)

Snapshot