Structural and connectional diversity of the primate motor thalamus: experimental light and electron microscopic studies in the rhesus monkey.

In this study we analyzed neuronal and synaptic organization of nigral and cerebellar afferent territories in the rhesus monkey motor thalamus using a variety of electron microscopic techniques. Significant qualitative and quantitative differences were revealed between the two regions with respect to features of nerve cells, their relationships to one another, and organization of afferent inputs on them. The data suggest that information arriving to the thalamus via nigral and cerebellar afferents is processed by different mechanisms.