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Cover picture: Fluorescent labeling of a thalamic reticular neuron after placing a small crystal of DiI into the dorsal thalamus of a rat. Labeled thalamocortical and corticothalamic axons pass perpendicularly to the reticular dendrites. Thalamic reticular neurons are GABAergic and mediate a network of disynaptic pathways that link together specific nuclei in the dorsal thalamus and allow dorsal thalamic cells to momentarily switch off each other's tonic firing of action potentials. This thalamic reticular-mediated switching could provide a mechanism for the selection of competing modality-related or cross-modality transmissions through the dorsal thalamus. For details of the new intrathalamic pathways, see the article by Crabtree and Isaac in this issue (pages 8754-8761).