Anterior thalamic afferents from the mamillary body and the limbic cortex in the rat

Abstract

Anterior thalamic afferents from the mamillary body and the limbic cortex were studied by using single and double retrograde transport methods in the rat. The medial mamillary nucleus was divided on the basis of the cytoarchitecture into four subnuclei: the pars medialis centralis, pars medialis dorsalis, pars lateralis, and pars basalis. Extensive connections were seen between each of these subdivisions of the mamillary body and the anterior thalamic nuclei, topographically organized so that the anteromedial thalamic nucleus receives projections exclusively from the pars medialis centralis, while the anteroventral thalamic nucleus receives projections from the pars medialis dorsalis and pars lateralis. Nuclei in the dorsal half of these two mamillary subdivisions project predominantly to the medial half of the anteroventral thalamic nucleus, and those in the ventral half to the lateral half of the nucleus. The pars basalis was found to have numerous projections to the magnocellular part of the anteroventral nucleus. All limbic cortical areas send projections bilaterally to all regions of the anteromedial nucleus as well as to the parvicellular parts of the anteroventral thalamic nucleus, while the anterodorsal nucleus receives ipsilateral projections originating exclusively from the preagranular, anterior limbic, and cingular regions. The magnocellular part of the anteroventral nucleus, however, receives only ipsilateral projections from all of the limbic cortex. Some neurons in the infralimbic region also project bilaterally to all of the anterior thalamic nuclei except the anterodorsal nucleus. All of these cortical projections to the anterior thalamus originate in layers V and VI of the limbic cortex.