The present review is devoted to modern knowledge about a structure and function of the cat's lateral posterior-pulvinar complex of the thalamus (LP-P). The LP-P is a subcortical structure belonging to visual system. This complex appears in phylogenesis simultaneously with lateral geniculate body and visual cortex, develops structurally and in human, occupies about 1/3 of the thalamus. The LP-P is a so-called associative nucleus of the thalamus and it is anatomically and functionally complex structure. The complex has reciprocal connections with many cortical areas and may participate in the regulation of a flow of visual information to the cortex modulating cortical processes. The function of the LP-P is still not fully understood. Experimental data allows to believe that this complex participate in such cognitive processes as attention and orienting to visual stimuli, in visually-guided behavior and spatial coding of visual stimuli as well as in binding of particular features of visual objects in the whole percept and maybe in the processes of short-term memory during analysis of visual stimuli.