Connections of the parahippocampal cortex in the cat. II. Subcortical afferents

Abstract

The organization of subcortical inputs to the parahippocampal cortex, which in the present study in the cat is considered to comprise the entorhinal and perirhinal cortices, was studied by using retrograde and anterograde tracing techniques. The results of the retrograde tracer horseradish peroxidase (HRP), HRP conjugated with wheat germ agglutinine (WGA-HRP), Fast Blue (FB) or Nuclear Yellow (NY] injections indicate that the entorhinal and perirhinal cortices receive inputs from the magnocellular basal forebrain and from distinct portions of the amygdaloid complex, the claustrum, and the thalamus. The two cortices are further projected upon by fibers from the supramamillary region of the hypothalamus, the ventral tegmental area of the mesencephalon, the dorsal raphe nucleus, the nucleus centralis superior, and the locus coeruleus. The entorhinal cortex, in addition, receives projections from the medial septum. As regards the projections from the amygdaloid complex, it was observed that the entorhinal cortex receives its heaviest input from the basolateral amygdaloid nucleus, whereas the perirhinal cortex receives a strong projection from the lateral nucleus and a weaker projection from the basomedial nucleus of the amygdala. Of the thalamic nuclei that project to the parahippocampal cortex, the nucleus reuniens is only connected with the entorhinal cortex, while fibers from the medial geniculate nucleus and the lateral posterior nucleus terminate in the perirhinal cortex. Injections of tritiated amino acid (3H-leucine) were placed in the medial septum, the dorsal and ventral claustrum, the basolateral and basomedial amygdaloid nuclei, and the nucleus reuniens of the thalamus. The results of these experiments demonstrate that, with the exception of the claustrum, these subcortical areas project mainly to the superficial layers I-III and the lamina dissecans of the parahippocampal cortex, and to a lesser degree to the deep layers V and VI.