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Patterning of the neocortical projections from the raphe nuclei in perinatal rats: Investigation of potential organizational mechanisms
Author(s) -
Bennettclarke Carol A.,
Hankin Mark H.,
Leslie Michael J.,
Chiaia Nicolas L.,
Rhoades Robert W.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
journal of comparative neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 209
eISSN - 1096-9861
pISSN - 0021-9967
DOI - 10.1002/cne.903480209
Subject(s) - raphe , neuroscience , biology , thalamus , serotonergic , raphe nuclei , cortex (anatomy) , cerebral cortex , neocortex , anatomy , sensory system , dorsal raphe nucleus , serotonergic cell groups , somatosensory system , serotonin , receptor , biochemistry
Serotoninergic (5‐HT), fibers in the cerebral cortex of perinatal rats have a pattern that coincides with the boundaries of primary sensory areas and within the primary somatosensorycortex form the rattunculus. This patterned immunoreactivity (IR) appears about 60 hours after birth and disappears between postnatal days (P‐) 12 and 15. Three experiments were carried out to evaluate mechanisms that might underlie the precise patterning of the 5‐HT‐IR. Retrograde labelling with fluorescent tracers in perinatal rats revealed only a coarse rostrocaudal to ography in the raphe‐cortical projection and the existence of raphe cells projecting to multiple cortical locations. Thus, a precise point‐to‐point, raphe‐cortical projection does not underlie the patterned cortical 5‐HT‐IR. Ablation of the thalamus prior to the age at which patterned 5‐HT‐IR could be seen in the developing cortex caused a complete loss of patterned immunoreactivity. This suggests that 5‐HT fibers may require the presence of thalamocortical axons to achieve the pattern observed in normal animals. Serotoninergic raphe neurons transplanted to the cortices of newborn rats exhiwited extensive axonal outgrowth, but did not form a somatotopic pattern. This result also suggests that specific spatiotemporal interactions between growing 5‐HT and thalamocortical axons may be necessary for the somatotopic patterning of the former fibers. © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.