The medullary relay from neck receptors to somatosensory thalamus in the rat: a neuroanatomical study.

Experiments were performed on rats to determine the location of thalamic projecting neurones in the medulla which receive direct contacts from neck primary afferents. The medullary terminations of primary afferents from the cervical region were identified by silver staining their degenerating terminals, diffusely filling their axons with horseradish peroxidase (HRP), or reacting for transganglionically transported HRP applied to muscle or cutaneous nerves. Neurones projecting to the ventrobasal thalamus were identified in the same experimental animals by using retrograde transport of HRP or Fluoro-Gold. En passant swellings or terminals of neck primary afferents were found in the vicinity of neurones projecting to the thalamus in the dorsolateral part of the rostral cuneate nucleus, the ventral aspect of the external cuneate nucleus, and the border zone between the two. Terminals of neck afferents and retrogradely labelled cells also coincided in nucleus x. Putative synaptic contacts were found in the region between the dorsolateral part of the rostral cuneate nucleus and ventromedial external cuneate nucleus. Cutaneous afferents from the neck were associated with thalamic projecting cells located along the dorsolateral border of the rostral cuneate nucleus, and afferents from neck muscles were associated with thalamic projecting cells in the caudal third of the external cuneate nucleus and in nucleus x.