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Functional Organization of the Rodent Parabrachial Nucleus
Author(s) -
Yamamoto Takashi,
Takemura Motohide,
Inui Tadashi,
Torii Kunio,
Maeda Naohiro,
Ohmoto Makoto,
Matsumoto Ichiro,
Abe Keiko
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.03883.x
Subject(s) - parabrachial nucleus , neuroscience , sensory system , lateral parabrachial nucleus , nucleus , biology , feeding behavior , anatomy , limbic system , central nervous system , dorsum , immediate early gene , psychology , gene expression , gene , endocrinology , biochemistry
The rodent parabrachial nucleus (PBN) is not merely a sensory relay station but also plays an important role in integrating various ascending and descending inputs together with plastic changes of neuronal responses after learning and experience. The limbic and reward systems receive ingestion‐related information via the cortical areas in primates, whereas in rodents the information is sent to these systems mostly via the PBN. To explore how the rat PBN is functionally organized, we detected activation patterns of neurons mainly by means of c ‐fos immunohistochemistry to show neuronal activation in different situations of ingestive behavior. The expression pattern was different under nutritionally replete and deficient conditions, perceptually new and familiar conditions, and learned and unlearned conditions. As for the possible functions, the rostral part of the external lateral subnucleus is related to general visceral inputs; the caudal part of the external lateral subnucleus, aversive behavior; the dorsal lateral subnucleus, ingestive behavior; and the central medial subnucleus, taste of NaCl. Because several genes were localized in specific subnuclei, we are trying to correlate the gene expressions with possible functional significance.