The projection from the parataenial thalamic nucleus, as demonstrated by the Phaseolus vulgaris-leucoagglutinin (PHA-L) method, identifies a subterritorial organization of the ventral striatum

doi:10.1016/0006-8993(86)90433-6

Brain Research

Volume 374, Issue 2, 28 May 1986, Pages 375-379

https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-8993(86)90433-6 Get rights and content

Abstract

The thalamic projection to the ventral striatum was examined in the rat by immunohistochemistry after iontophoretic injections ofPhaseolus vulgaris-leucoagglutinin (PHA-L) into the parataenial thalamic nucleus. A continuous dense terminal field was observed in the nucleus accumbens and the striatal cell bridges, as well as in the adjoining striatal parts of the olfactory tubercle. These observations provide further evidence of the relevance of the ventral striatal concept.

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Coping in groups of domestic horses - Review from a social and neurobiological perspective
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Citation Excerpt :
Fourth, rewarding behaviours may function as a reinforcer. This has been shown in T-maze discrimination tasks in juvenile rats (Humphreys and Einon, 1981; Normansell and Panksepp, 1990) and place conditioning paradigms in rats (Calcagnetti and Schechter, 1992; Carlsen and Heimer, 1986). In these studies and also the study of Vanderschuren et al. (1997) it is shown that opioid receptors activation mediate the rewarding properties of social play.
Many sport horses live solitary, with no physical contact to other horses allowed for years, for many different reasons including limiting risk of injuries caused by other horses. Other horses are (semi-) permanently housed in large groups, because their owners perceive this is “natural” and thus good for their horses’ welfare. Indeed, sometimes this leads to increased aggression and individuals who cannot cope with social stress and limited space. However, usually humans determine the social composition of these groups of geldings and mares, possibly leading to other interactions as known from natural equine societies. In this review paper the underlying neurobiological mechanisms of social relationships and social dynamics in modern horses were assessed. Ultimately, it can help to define hypotheses to determine strategies what could be most optimal non-voluntary social compositions of domestic groups and adjust introduction techniques so the individuals can cope optimally, i.e. to show the lowest ethological and physiological stress indicators over both short and long period of time.
Based on neurobiological evidence it is shown that indispensable behaviours like exploration and grooming are displayed because of their rewarding properties. Endogenous opioids play a pivotal role in rewarding the individual and motivate it to perform these behaviours, irrespective of the short-term biological success of such indispensable behaviours. Equine allogrooming and play in domestic groups have been addressed to assess whether they fulfilled the four ethological need criteria: (i) performed by all individuals; (ii) self-rewarding; (iii) have a rebound effect and (iv) in absence of a proper substrate (i.e. social partner) chronic stress is induced. Indeed it was assessed whether equine allogrooming and play are ethological needs. Not only in domestic non-voluntarily composed groups but it is evidenced why it is also an ethological need for individually housed sport horses. Summarising: social relationships and interventions especially in relation to preferred partners, have rewarding properties in the brain and seem therefore important for the main coping mechanisms of domestic horses in large groups and most likely also for feral horses.
Thalamus
2012, The Human Nervous System, Third Edition
The nucleus accumbens shell as a model of integrative subcortical forebrain systems regulating food intake
2007, Appetite and Body Weight
Feeding in mammals is a complex behavior, which involves the coordinated integration of multimodal signals from numerous brain regions and the periphery. This chapter reviews the nucleus accumbens shell (AcbSh) feeding circuit as an example of how integrative processes in the subcortical forebrain contribute to the regulation of food intake. It is only recently that a sufficient body of data has been accumulated to allow us to begin understand the specific roles played by discrete cell populations, to assess the importance of their relative contributions to the control of normal and pathological feeding, and to investigate how these functional populations work together to control food intake. AcbSh circuits containing GABA, glutamate, and a number of neuropeptides play a specific and fundamental role in controlling food intake. The AcbSh receives a variety of information from afferent fiber systems originating in a number of cortical and subcortical brain regions. Processed multimodal sensory data are integrated with information regarding energy balance, taste, reward, and previously formed associations, and results in an output signal that potently regulate neural activity in feeding-related circuits involving the lateral, arcuate, and paraventricular hypothalamic nuclei. Apparently, the AcbSh mediates activity in the lateral hypothalamus, both through direct projections and by altering the firing rate of neurons in the interposed medial ventral pallidum. The magnitude and behavioral specificity of AcbSh-mediated feeding suggest that pathology of the circuit might be implicated in the etiology of some eating disorders. Furthermore, amino acid and neuropeptide receptors in the AcbSh may be promising targets for pharmacological therapies designed to treat such disorders.
The intralaminar and midline nuclei of the thalamus. Anatomical and functional evidence for participation in processes of arousal and awareness
2002, Brain Research Reviews
The thalamic midline and intralaminar nuclei, long thought to be a non-specific arousing system in the brain, have been shown to be involved in separate and specific brain functions, such as specific cognitive, sensory and motor functions. Fundamental to the participation of the midline and intralaminar nuclei in such diverse functions seems to be a role in awareness. It is unknown whether the midline and intralaminar nuclei, together often referred to as the ‘non-specific’ nuclei of the thalamus, act together or whether each nucleus is involved idiosyncratically in separate circuits underlying cortical processes. Detailed knowledge of the connectivity of each of these nuclei is needed to judge the nature of their contribution to cortical functioning. The present account provides an overview of the results of neuroanatomical tracing studies on the connections of the individual intralaminar and midline thalamic nuclei in the rat, that have been performed over the past decade in our laboratory. The results are discussed together with those reported by other laboratories, and with those obtained in other species. On the basis of the patterns of the afferent and efferent projections, we conclude that the midline and intralaminar thalamic nuclei can be clustered into four groups. Each of the groups can be shown to have its own set of target and input structures, both cortically and subcortically. These anatomical relationships, in combination with functional studies in animals and in humans, lead us to propose that the midline and intralaminar nuclei as a whole play a role in awareness, with each of the groups subserving a role in a different aspect of awareness. The following groups can be discerned: (1) a dorsal group, consisting of the paraventricular, parataenial and intermediodorsal nuclei, involved in viscero-limbic functions; (2) a lateral group, comprising the central lateral and paracentral nuclei and the anterior part of the central medial nucleus, involved in cognitive functions; (3) a ventral group, made up of the reuniens and rhomboid nucleus and the posterior part of the central medial nucleus, involved in multimodal sensory processing; (4) a posterior group, consisting of the centre médian and parafascicular nuclei, involved in limbic motor functions.
Afferent connections of the interstitial nucleus of the posterior limb of the anterior commissure and adjacent amygdalostriatal transition area in the rat
1999, Neuroscience
The interstitial nucleus of the posterior limb of the anterior commissure is, like the striatum, very rich in tyrosine hydroxylase and acetylcholinesterase, but on the basis of most other neurochemical criteria displays features that are typical of the extended amygdala (Alheid, de Olmos and Beltramino, 1995). Its afferent connections were examined in the rat with retrograde (cholera toxin B subunit) and anterograde (Phaseolus vulgaris leucoagglutinin) tracers and compared to those of the neighboring amygdalostriatal transition area and central amygdaloid nucleus. Deposits of cholera toxin B subunit in the interstitial nucleus of the posterior limb of the anterior commissure result in retrograde labeling that is similar to that seen after cholera toxin B subunit injections in the central amygdaloid nucleus. Retrogradely labeled cells are found in insular, infralimbic, prelimbic, piriform, amygdalopiriform transition, entorhinal and perirhinal cortices, as well as in temporal field CA1 of Ammon horn and ventral subiculum, amygdala (nucleus of the lateral olfactory tract, anterior amygdaloid area, anterior cortical, posterolateral cortical, anterior and posterior basomedial, intercalated cells, basolateral and lateral nuclei), and extended amygdala, primarily in its central division. The latter includes the lateral bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, dorsal portions of the sublenticular region, the lateral pocket of the supracapsular bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and the central amygdaloid nucleus. Retrogradely labeled cells are also seen in midline thalamic nuclei, lateral hypothalamus, ventral tegmental area, retrorubral field, dorsal raphe nucleus, pedunculopontine and dorsolateral tegmental nuclei, locus coeruleus and parabrachial area. The central extended amygdala, lateral hypothalamus and parabrachial area display a substantial retrograde labeling only when the injection involves districts of the interstitial nucleus of the posterior limb of the anterior commissure apposed to the pallidum, i.e. its medial part. Our anterograde results confirm that projections from the lateral bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and central amygdaloid nucleus to the interstitial nucleus of the posterior limb of the anterior commissure target its medial part. They also indicate that structures which provide major afferents to the central extended amygdala (the lateral and posterior basolateral amygdaloid nuclei and the amygdalopiriform transition area) innervate chiefly the medial part of the interstitial nucleus of the posterior limb of the anterior commissure and, to a much lesser degree, its lateral part. The piriform cortex, which has well-acknowledged projections to the ventral striatum, innervates only the rostral sector of the interstitial nucleus of the posterior limb of the anterior commissure. Taken together, these data indicate that the medial part of the interstitial nucleus of the posterior limb of the anterior commissure is closely related to the central extended amygdala. Rostral and lateral parts of the interstitial nucleus of the posterior limb of the anterior commissure, on the other hand, appear as transitional territories between the central extended amygdala and ventral striatum. The afferent connections of the zone traditionally termed amygdalostriatal transition area are in general similar to those of the caudate–putamen, which does not receive projections from the central extended amygdala. After cholera toxin B subunit injections in the caudoventral globus pallidus, a dense retrograde labeling is observed in the amygdalostriatal transition area and overlying striatum, but not in the interstitial nucleus of the posterior limb of the anterior commissure.
Our results suggest that the interstitial nucleus of the posterior limb of the anterior commissure and the amygdalostriatal transition area are engaged in distinct forebrain circuits; the former is a dopamine-rich territory intimately related to the central extended amygdala and the latter is primarily a striatal district.
The structural organization of connections between hypothalamus and cerebral cortex
1997, Brain Research Reviews
Motivated behavior requires coordinated somatic, autonomic, and endocrine responses, and may be divided into initiation, procurement, and consummatory phases (Swanson, L.W. and Mogenson, G.J., Neural mechanisms for the functional coupling of autonomic, endocrine and somatomotor responses in adaptative behavior, Brain Res. Rev., 3 (1981) 1–34). Obviously, such behavior may involve the entire central nervous system, although it is important to identify circuitry or systems that mediate the behavior directed toward specific goal objects. This problem has recently been clarified by the identification of hypothalamic subsystems important for the execution of instinctive behaviors related to ingestion, reproduction, and defense. These subsystems are modulated by sensory (reflex), central control (e.g., circadian), and voluntary (cortical) inputs. The latter are dominated by inputs from the ventral temporal lobe and medial prefrontal region, which are both direct and via associated parts of the basal nuclei (ganglia). Hypothalamic output is characterized by descending projections to brainstem and spinal motor systems, and by projections back to the cerebral cortex, which are both direct and via a continuous rostromedial part of the dorsal thalamus. This thalamic region includes the anterior, medial, and midline groups, which in turn innervate a continuous ring of cortex that includes the hippocampal formation and the cingulate, prefrontal, and insular regions. Parts of this thalamic region also innervate the ventral striatum, which receives a massive input from the cortical ring as well.

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: This study was supported by NIH International Research Fellowship 1 F05 TWO3598-01 and NIH grant 17743.

¹: We would like to give special thanks to Mr. G.A. Helms for technical assistance and Mrs. R. Powell for typing the manuscript.

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Brain Research

Abstract

Reference (22)

An anterograde neuroanatomical tracing method that shows the detailed morphology of neurons, their axons and terminals: immunohistochemical localization of an axonally transported plant lectin,Phaseolus vulgaris-leucoagglutinin (PHA-L)

Brain Research

A subpopulation of mesencephalic dopamine neurons projecting to limbic areas contains a cholecystokinin-like peptide: evidence from immunohistochemistry combined with retrograde tracing

Neuroscience

Application of coupled oxidation reaction to electron microscopic demonstration of horseradish peroxidase: cobalt-glucose oxidase method

Brain Research

A note on the connections and development of the nucleus accumbens

Brain Research

Neuroanatomical tracing by use ofPhaseolus vulgaris-leucoagglutinin (PHA-L): electron microscopy of PHA-L-filled neuronal somata, dendrites, axons and axon terminals

Brain Research

Cholecystokinin innervation of the ventral striatum: a morphological and radioimmunological study

Neuroscience

The thalamostriatal projection in the cat

J. Comp. Neurol.

Dopamine-containing systems in the CNS

The projection of the midline and intralaminar nuclei of the thalamus of the rabbit

J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry

Evidence for the existence of monoamine neurons in the central nervous system. IV. The distribution of monoamine terminals in the central nervous system

Acta Physiol. Scand.

The olfactory cortex and the ventral striatum

Cited by (23)

Coping in groups of domestic horses - Review from a social and neurobiological perspective

Thalamus

The nucleus accumbens shell as a model of integrative subcortical forebrain systems regulating food intake

The intralaminar and midline nuclei of the thalamus. Anatomical and functional evidence for participation in processes of arousal and awareness

Afferent connections of the interstitial nucleus of the posterior limb of the anterior commissure and adjacent amygdalostriatal transition area in the rat

The structural organization of connections between hypothalamus and cerebral cortex