An anatomical study of cerebellum projection to anterior cingulate cortex through thalamus
Date Issued
2015
Date
2015
Author(s)
Wu, I-Chun
Abstract
Cerebellum has long been thought as a main area for motor executive control. Recent studies of electrophysiology and behavior reveal that cerebellum also participates in cognitive and emotional functions. However, there is still no sufficient anatomical evidence. The study includes four parts: we (1) injected anterograde neuronal tracer in the rat deep cerebellar nuclei (DCN); (2) injected retrograde tracer in the mid thalamus; (3) injected retrograde tracer in anterior cingulate cortex (ACC); (4) simultaneously injected anterograde tracer in the DCN and retrograde tracer in ACC. After several days of survival, the animal was sacrificed for perfusion and the brain was fixed and removed for further frozen section. The results show: (1) Except for ventral anterior thalamic nucleus (VA), ventrolateral thalamic nucleus (VL) and ventromedial thalamic nucleus (VM), cerebellar also projects to non-motor nuclei, such as lateral part of mediodorsal thalamic nucleus (MDL), paracentral thalamic nucleus (PC), centrolateral thalamic nucleus (CL) and central medial thalamic nucleus (CM), and dentate nuclei (DN) is the main output. (2) The retrograde tracing of ACC injection of fluoro-gold shows a tendency that rostral medial thalamus preferentially projects to A2 and caudal medial thalamus to A4 level of ACC. (3) In MDL, PC, and CL, many retrograde tracer labeled neurons can be seen and anterograde tracer labeled axon fiber and boutons around those neurons. Our results indicate that the cerebellum may have connections with anterior cingulate cortex through mediodorsal thalamic nucleus, paracentral nucleus, or central lateral nucleus and provide anatomical data showing the role of emotional coordination by the cerebellum.
Subjects
deep cerebellar nuclei
limbic cortex
neuronal tracer
mediodorsal thalamic nucleus
intralaminar nuclei
Type
thesis
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