Functional organization of the oculomotor nucleus in the baboon

Abstract

The functional organization of the oculomotor nucleus was investigated using horseradish peroxidase (HRP) histochemistry. In a series of baboons, injections of HRP were made into the skeletal muscles supplied by the oculomotor nerve (medial rectus, superior rectus, inferior rectus, inferior oblique, and the levator palpebrae superioris). After a 48-hour survival time the animals were sacrificed via perfusion-fixation and the brains treated according to the tetramethylbenzidine (TMB)-HRP method of Mesulam (1978). The inferior oblique, inferior rectus, medial rectus, and levator palpebrae superioris muscle are supplied by cells located primarily in the homolateral oculomotor nucleus. Some fibers to the levator palpebrae superioris arise from cells in both caudal central nuclei. The superior rectus muscle receives fibers from cells in the contralateral oculomotor nucleus. The results were compiled using a Lucite-plate reconstruction method that permits visualization of the three-dimensional configuration of the neuronal populations within the oculomotor nucleus. Oculomotor neurons are organized in a vertical column that may be anatomically divided into rostral, middle, and caudal thirds. A section through any of these levels may be further subdivided into dorsal, intermediate, and ventral zones. Each of the oculomotor skeletal muscles was found to have cells at almost all levels of the nucleus and in certain zones at each level. These functional cell groups intermingle with one another in the baboon and do not remain segregated into distinct subnuclei or subdivisions. Much overlap was evident between cells innervating the homolateral inferior rectus, homolateral inferior oblique, and the contralateral superior rectus muscles. There was also overlap between those cells supplying the homolateral levator palpebrae superioris and the homolateral medial rectus muscles.