Organization of the lamprey striatum – transmitters and projections

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is to characterize the striatum of the lamprey by immunohistochemical and tracing techniques. Cells immunoreactive for GABA and substance P (SP), and positive for acetylcholinesterase, are present in the lamprey striatum. Immunoreactive (ir) fibers were detected by antisera raised against SP, dopamine, enkephalin and serotonin. These immunoreactive fibers were mainly located in the periventricular neuropil that borders the striatum and in which GABAergic striatal neurons distributed their dendritic arbors. Putative connections between the striatum, the ventral part of the lateral pallium, and the diencephalic motor centers involved in the control of locomotion were studied by using fluorescein-coupled dextran amines (FDA) as a tracer. The striatum projects to the ventral part of the lateral pallium (lpv), where GABA-ir cells and SP-ir fibers were also present. The lpv in turn projects to the ventral thalamus, which has descending connections to the reticulospinal cells involved in the control of locomotion. These results, together with previous findings of histaminergic and neurotensin projections, suggest that the lamprey striatum and its inputs with regard to neurotransmitters/modulators are very similar to those of modern amniotes, including primates, and are thus conserved to a high degree.