Retina-dependent activation by apomorphine of metabolic activity in the superficial layer of the superior colliculus.

Studies of the effect of the dopamine agonist apomorphine on local cerebral glucose utilization by means of the carbon-14-labeled deoxyglucose method demonstrate a dose-dependent metabolic activation in the superficial layer of the superior colliculus in the rat. Apomorphine stimulated glucose utilization in a number of other cerebral structures, but only the effect in the superficial layer of the superior colliculus depended on an intact retinal input. This effect was present with the animal in the light or in the dark, but was abolished by enucleation, which left the effects in other cerebral structures unimpaired. Activation of the superificial layer of the superior colliculus appears, therefore, to be secondary to an action of apomorphine on dopaminergic systems within the retina.