The role of synchronized activity in the thalamus is crucial to understanding key brain functions such as perception or attentional shifts. How such synchronized activity is influenced by electrical coupling (EC) in thalamic circuits has been only sparsely addressed. Recent evidence for thalamic EC in the intact brain from my own recordings triggered my interest in addressing this issue in a simplified system (brain slices). This allows the application of both electrophysiological and imaging techniques for a systematic assessment of thalamic EC and a putative function of EC in synchronizing thalamo-cortical activity.