In the operation of reasoning, the mind does nothing but run over its objects, as they are supposed to stand in reality, without adding any thing to them or diminishing any thing from them. If I examine the Ptolomaic and Copernican systems, I endeavour only, by my inquiries, to know the real situation of the planets; that is, in other words, I endeavour to give them, in my conception, the same relation that they bear towards each other in the heavens. To this operation of the mind, therefore, there seems to be always a real, though often unknown standard, in the nature of things; nor is truth or falsehood variable by the various apprehensions of mankind. D. Hume, The sceptic. In: Essays. Moral Political and Literary. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1963, p. 166. Contents 1 Introduction 1 2 Materials and Methods 2 3 Observations . . . . 4 3. 1 Topography of the Medial Geniculate Body 4 3. 2 Cytoarchitectonic Subdivisions of the Medial Geniculate Body 4 3. 3 Neuronal Architecture of the Ventral Division 7 3. 4 Structure ofAxons in the Ventral Division 21 3. 5 Cortical Connections of the Ventral Division 27 3. 6 Neuronal Architecture of the Dorsal Division 27 3. 7 Structure of Axons in the Dorsal Nuclei 39 3. 8 Neuronal and Axonal Architecture of the Suprageniculate Nucleus and the Posterior Limitans Nucleus . . . . . . 43 3. 9 Cortical Connections of the Dorsal Division . . . . . . 49 3. 10 Neuronal and Axonal Architecture of the Medial Division 56 4 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .