Separate cortical and hippocampal cell populations target the rat nucleus reuniens and mammillary bodies.

ABSTRACT: Nucleus reuniens receives dense projections from both the hippocampus and the frontal cortices. Reflecting these connections, this nucleus is thought to enable executive functions, including those involving spatial learning. The mammillary bodies, which also support spatial learning, again receive dense hippocampal inputs, as well as lighter projections from medial frontal areas. The present study, therefore, compared the sources of these inputs to nucleus reuniens and the mammillary bodies. Retrograde tracer injections in rats showed how these two diencephalic sites receive projections from separate cell populations, often from adjacent layers in the same cortical areas. In the subiculum, which projects strongly to both sites, the mammillary body inputs originate from a homogenous pyramid

SUBMITTER: Mathiasen ML 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6618334 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature