Abstract
The medial posterior parietal cortex of the primate brain includes different functional areas, which have been defined based on the functional properties, cyto- and myeloarchitectural criteria, and cortico-cortical connections. Here, we describe the thalamic projections to two of these areas (V6 and V6A), based on 14 retrograde neuronal tracer injections in 11 hemispheres of 9 Macaca fascicularis. The injections were placed either by direct visualisation or using electrophysiological guidance, and the location of injection sites was determined post mortem based on cyto- and myeloarchitectural criteria. We found that the majority of the thalamic afferents to the visual area V6 originate in subdivisions of the lateral and inferior pulvinar nuclei, with weaker inputs originating from the central densocellular, paracentral, lateral posterior, lateral geniculate, ventral anterior and mediodorsal nuclei. In contrast, injections in both the dorsal and ventral parts of the visuomotor area V6A revealed strong inputs from the lateral posterior and medial pulvinar nuclei, as well as smaller inputs from the ventrolateral complex and from the central densocellular, paracentral, and mediodorsal nuclei. These projection patterns are in line with the functional properties of injected areas: “dorsal stream” extrastriate area V6 receives information from visuotopically organised subdivisions of the thalamus; whereas visuomotor area V6A, which is involved in the sensory guidance of arm movement, receives its primary afferents from thalamic nuclei that provide high-order somatic and visual input.
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Abbreviations
- AD:
-
Anterior dorsal
- AM:
-
Anterior medial
- AV:
-
Anterior ventral
- Bsc:
-
Brachium of superior colliculus
- Can:
-
Capsule of the anterior nuclei
- Cdc:
-
Central densocellular
- CL:
-
Central lateral
- CM:
-
Centromedian
- Csl:
-
Centralis superior lateralis
- GLvo:
-
Lateral geniculate, pars oralis
- GLd:
-
Lateral geniculate, dorsalis
- GMpc:
-
Medial geniculate, pars parvocellularis
- LGN:
-
Lateral geniculate
- Li:
-
Limitans
- LP:
-
Lateral posterior
- MD:
-
Mediodorsal
- MDdc:
-
Mediodorsal, pars densocellularis
- MDmc:
-
Mediodorsal, pars magnocellularis
- MDpc:
-
Mediodorsal, pars parvocellularis
- MG:
-
Medial geniculate
- MGpc:
-
Medial geniculate, pars parvocellularis
- PC/Pcn:
-
Paracentral
- Pul:
-
Pulvinar
- PuI:
-
Pulvinar, inferior subdivision
- PuL:
-
Pulvinar, lateral subdivision
- PuM:
-
Pulvinar, medial subdivision
- SG:
-
Suprageniculatus
- STN:
-
Subthalamic
- R:
-
Reticular
- VAmc:
-
Ventral anterior, pars magnocellularis
- VAdc:
-
Ventral anterior, pars densocellularis
- VL:
-
Ventral lateral
- VLc:
-
Ventral lateral, pars caudalis
- VLm:
-
Ventral lateral, pars medialis
- VLo:
-
Ventral lateral, pars oralis
- VLps:
-
Ventral lateral, pars postrema
- VPI:
-
Ventral posterior inferior
- VPL:
-
Ventral posterior lateral
- VPLo:
-
Ventral posterior lateral, pars oralis
- VPLc:
-
Ventral posterior lateral, pars caudalis
- VPM:
-
Ventral posterior medial
- X:
-
Area X
- CTB-green:
-
Cholera toxin B subunit conjugated with Alexa fluor 488
- CTB-red:
-
Cholera toxin B subunit conjugated with Alexa fluor 594
- CTB-gold:
-
Cholera toxin B subunit conjugated with colloidal gold
- DY:
-
Diamidino-yellow
- FB:
-
Fast blue
- WGA-HRP:
-
Wheat germ agglutinin conjugated to horseradish peroxidase
- PBS:
-
Phosphate buffered saline
- SPL:
-
Superior parietal lobule
- V6:
-
Area V6
- V6Ad:
-
Area V6A, dorsal portion
- V6Av:
-
Area V6A, ventral portion
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Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank M. Verdosci, F. Campisi and G. Placenti for the technical assistance, and R. Tweedale for corrections to the manuscript. This research was supported by European Union Grant FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IOF 300452, National Health and Medical Research Council, grants 1020839 and 1082144, Australian Research Council grant DP140101968, and by Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca and Fondazione del Monte di Bologna e Ravenna, Italy.
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Gamberini, M., Bakola, S., Passarelli, L. et al. Thalamic projections to visual and visuomotor areas (V6 and V6A) in the Rostral Bank of the parieto-occipital sulcus of the Macaque. Brain Struct Funct 221, 1573–1589 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-015-0990-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-015-0990-2