Summary
During early development, the perireticular thalamic nucleus is very large (i.e. has many cells) and has a strong projection to the dorsal thalamus and to the cerebral neocortex. By adulthood, the nucleus has much reduced in size and only a few cells remain. It is not clear whether these perireticular cells that remain into adulthood maintain their connections with the dorsal thalamus and with the neocortex. This study examines this issue by injecting neuronal tracers into various nuclei of the dorsal thalamus (dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus, medial geniculate complex, ventroposteromedial nucleus, lateral posterior nucleus, posterior thalamic nucleus) and into different areas of the neocortex (somatosensory, visual, auditory). After injections of tracer into the individual nuclei of the rat and ferret dorsal thalamus, retrogradely-labelled perireticular cells are seen. In general, after each injection, the retrogradely-labelled perireticular cells lie immediately adjacent to a group of retrogradely-labelled reticular cells. For instance, after injections into the medial geniculate complex, perireticular cells adjacent to the auditory reticular sector are retrogradely-labelled, whilst after an injection into the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus, retrogradely-labelled perireticular cells adjacent to the visual reticular sector are seen. By contrast, injections of tracer into various areas of the rat and ferret neocortex result in no retrogradely-labelled cells in the perireticular nucleus. Thus, unlike during perinatal development when perireticular cells project to both neocortex and dorsal thalamus, perireticular cells in the adult seem to project to the dorsal thalamus only: the perireticular projection to the neocortex appears to be entirely transient.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adams, J. C. (1981) Heavy metal intensification of DAB- based HRP reaction product.Journal of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry 29, 775.
Adams, N. C., Baker, G. E. &Guillery, R. W. (1993) Perireticular cell bodies are labelled following Dil or HRP injections into the cortex of perinatal rats.Society for Neuroscience Abstracts 19, 45.
Allendoerfer, A. &Schatz, C. J. (1994) The Subplate, a transient neocortical structure: its role in the development of connections between the thalamus and cortex.Annual Review of Neuroscience 17, 185–218.
Chun, J. J. M. &Shatz, C. J. (1989) Interstitual cells of the adult neocortical white matter are the remnant of the early generated subplate neurone population.Journal of Comparative Neurology 282, 555–69.
Clemence, A. E. &Mitrofanis, J. (1992) Cytoarchitectonic heterogeneities in the thalamic reticular nucleus of cats and ferrets.Journal of Comparative Neurology 322, 167–81.
Coleman, K. A. &Mitrofanis, J. (1995) Topographic organisation of the visual sector of the rat reticular thalamic nucleus.Proceedings of the Australian Neuroscience Society 6, 200.
Conley, M. &Diamond, I. T. (1990) Organisation of the visual sector of the thalamic reticular nucleus in Galago.European Journal of Neuroscience 2, 211–26.
Conley, M., Kupersmith, A. C. &Diamond, I. T. (1991) Organisation of projections from subdivisions of the auditory cortex and thalamus to the auditory sector of the thalamic reticular nucleus in galago.European Journal of Neuroscience 3, 1089–103.
Crabtree, J. W. &Killackey, H. P. (1989) The topographic organisation and axis of projection within the visual sector of the rabbit's thalamic reticular nucleus.European Journal of Neuroscience 1, 94–109.
Crabtree, J. W. (1992a) The somatotopic organisation within the rabbit thalamic reticular nucleus.European Journal of Neuroscience 4, 1343–51.
Crabtree, J. W. (1992b) The somatotopic organisation within the cat's thalamic reticular nucleus.European Journal of Neuroscience 4, 1352–61.
Crabtree, J. E. &Kind, P. (1993) Monoclonal antibody Cat-301 selectively identifies a subset of nuclei in the cat;s somatosensory thalamus.Journal of Neurocytology 22, 903–12.
Herbert, J. (1963) Nuclear structure of the thalamus of the ferret.Journal of Comparative Neurology 120, 105–27.
Jones, E. G. (1985)The Thalamus. New York: Plenum Press.
Leventhal, A. G., Schall, J. D., Ault, S. J., Provis, J. M. &Vitek, D. J. (1988) Class-specific cell death shapes the distribution and patterns of central projections of cat retinal ganglion cells.Journal of Neuroscience 8, 2011–27.
McConnell, S. K., Ghosh, A. &Shatz, C. J. (1989) Subplate neurones pioneer the first axon pathway from the cerebral cortex.Science 245, 978–82.
McConnell, S. K., Ghosh, A. &Shatz, C. J. (1989) Subplate pioneers and the formation of descending connections from cerebral cortex.Journal of Neuroscience 14, 1892–907.
Mesulam, M. M. (1982)Tracing neural connections with horseradish peroxidase. New York: Wiley.
Mitrofanis, J. (1992a) Patterns of antigenic expression in the thalamic reticular nucleus of developing rats.Journal of Comparative Neurology 320, 161–81.
Mitrofanis, J. (1992b) Calbindin immunoreactivity in a subset of cat thalamic reticular neurones.Journal of Neurocytology 21, 495–505.
Mitrofanis, J. (1994a) Development of the thalamic reticular region in ferrets with special reference to its perireticular and perigeniculate portions.European Journal of Neuroscience 6, 253–63.
Mitrofanis, J. (1994b) Development of the pathway from the reticular and perireticular nuclei to the thalamus in ferrets: a Dil study.European Journal of Neuroscience 6, 1864–82.
Mitrofanis, J. &Baker, G. E. (1993a) Development of the thalamic reticular and perireticular nuclei in rats and their relationships to the course of growing corticofugal and corticopetal axons.Journal of Comparative Neurology 338, 575–88.
Mitrofanis, J. &Baker, G. E. (1993b) Development of the thalamic reticular and perireticular nuclei in rats and their relationship to the course of growing corticofugal and corticopetal axons.Journal of Physiology 467, 320P.
Mitrofanis, J. &Guillery, R. W. (1993) New views of the thalamic reticular nucleus in the adult and the developing brain.Trends in Neuroscience 16, 240–5.
O'hara, P. T. &Lieberman, A. R. (1985) The thalamic reticular nucleus of the adult rat: experimental anatomical analysis.Journal of Neurocytology 14, 365–411.
O'leary, D. D. M., Stanfield, B. B. &Cowan, W. M. (1981) Evidence that the early postnatal restriction of the cells of origin of the callosal projection is due to elimination of axonal collaterals rather than to the death of neurones.Developmental Brain Research 1, 607–17.
Otterson, O. P. &Storm-Mathison, J. (1984) Glutamate- and GABA-containing neurones in the mouse and rat brain, as demonstrated with a new immunocytochemical technique.Journal of Comparative Neurology 229, 374–92.
Paxinos, G. &Watson, C. J. (1986)The rat brain in stereotaxic coordinates, 2nd Ed. Sydney: Academic Press.
Pinault, D., Bourassa, J. &Deschenes, M. (1985) The axonal arborisation of single thalamic reticular neurons in the somatosensory thalamus of the rat.European Journal of Neuroscience 7, 31–40.
Swanson, L. W. (1992)Brain Maps: Structure of the Rat Brain. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mitrofanis, J., Lozsádi, D.A. & Coleman, K.A. Evidence for a projection from the perireticular thalamic nucleus to the dorsal thalamus in the adult rat and ferret. J Neurocytol 24, 891–902 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01215640
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01215640