Localization of motoneurons innervating deep and superficial facial muscles in the rat: a horseradish peroxidase and electrophysiologic study.

In the rat, distribution of the motoneurons supplying the deep facial muscles (DFM)--the posterior belly of the digastric (VP) and the stylohyoid (SH) muscles--and the superficial facial muscles (SFM) was studied using the horseradish peroxidase (HRP) method and the antidromic field-potential method. The HRP was injected individually into the VP or SH or applied directly to the central end of the facial nerve cut immediately before it enters the parotid gland. Electrical stimulation was administered to the common stem of the branches innervating the VP or SH and to the facial nerve trunk just before entering the parotid gland. Both VP and SH motoneurons were found not in the main but in the accessory facial nucleus, within which the VP motoneurons were more numerous and more dorsorostrally extended than were the SH motoneurons. Motoneurons supplying the SFM were confined within the main facial nucleus. Evidence was found that the distribution of antidromic field potentials evoked by stimulation at the above sites coincided with the distribution of motoneurons supplying either the DFM or SFM obtained from the HRP experiment. In the rat, the accessory and main facial nuclei can be considered to be the mass of motoneurons exclusively innervating the DFM and SFM, respectively.