 The number of branches and the diameter of the arborisation are linked to the specific system of which they are a part of, and to the animal species.They have the rather rare property of having no initial axonal collaterals, which implies that one emitting thalamocortical neuron does not send information to its neighbor.They send long-range glutamatergic projections to the cerebral cortex where they end electively at the layer IV (or around) level.