Organization of afferent connections of the feline lateral habenular nucleus

Abstract

The organization of afferent projections to the lateral habenular nucleus (LHB) was studied in adult cats. In autoradiographic experiments, tritiated leucine injections were made into regions shown in retrograde transport studies to project to LHB (lateral hypothalamus, preoptic region, entopeduncular nucleus, and midbrain raphe) to determine the locations of axonal trajectories and terminal zones. The distribution of silver grains in the ipsilateral LHB differed according to the injection site. Entopeduncular nucleus projected to the ventrolateral part, raphe to the dorsomedial part, preoptic region to the central part, anterior hypothalamus to all but the ventrolateral part, and posterior hypothalamus to all but the dorsomedial part. The lateral hypothalamus, preoptic region, and anterior portion of the entopeduncular nucleus projected primarily through the inferior thalamic peduncle and stria medullaris, while the posterior portion of the entopeduncular nucleus projected more diffusely through thalamus to enter LHB from its ventral aspect. Raphe axons reached LHB through the fasciculus retroflexus. Entopeduncular and lateral hypothalamic axons passed through the habenular commissure to the contralateral stria medullaris to reach the contralateral LHB. Silver grains in LHB were distributed similarly bilaterally, but were much less dense contralateral to the injection. The major afferent projections to the feline LHB are therefore topographically organized. The significance of this organization in relation to the possible role of the LHB in integrating limbic and extrapyramidal motor systems is discussed.