Determining how and where proprioceptive information is represented in the rat VPL is important in allowing us to further investigate how this sense is utilized during motor control and learning. Here we demonstrate using electrophysiological techniques that the rostral portion of the rat VPL nucleus (rVPL -2 mm to -2.5 mm Bregma) carries a large amount of proprioceptive information. Caudal to this region is a zone where the cutaneous receptive fields are focal (mVPL for middle VPL -2.5 mm to -3.2 mm Bregma) with a fine topographic map of the fore and hind limbs. The forepaw is represented with the thumb medial and each subsequent digit increasingly lateral, all of which are dorsal to the pads. The caudal VPL (cVPL -3.2 mm to -4.0 mm Bregma) has broad receptive fields and is the target of lamina 1 and 2, as well as the dorsal column nucli, and may represent the flow of nociceptive information through the VPL (Gauriau and Bernard, 2004). Thus, we propose that the VPL may be thought of as three subnuclei, the rostral, middle and caudal VPL, each carrying preferentially a different modality of information. This pattern of information flow through the rat VPL is similar, although apparently rotated, to that of many primates, indicating that these regions in the rat (rVPL, mVPL and cVPL) have become further differentiated in primates where they are seen as separate nuclei (VPS, VPL and VPI/VMpo).