Efferent projections of the sexually dimorphic area of the gerbil hypothalamus: anterograde identification and retrograde verification in males and females.

Outputs of the sexually dimorphic area (SDA) of the gerbil hypothalamus were identified by injecting Phaseolus vulgaris-leucoagglutinin into the medial or lateral SDA (mSDA, lSDA) in males and females. They were verified by injecting Fluoro-Gold or rhodamine-labeled beads into over half the areas that contained labeled fibers. Both anterograde and retrograde tracing showed that the mSDA and lSDA project to many of the same sites but often to differing degrees. The mSDA projects more heavily than the lSDA to many of their forebrain targets including the ventral part of the lateral septal nucleus, the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, the medial tuberal area, and the anteroventral periventricular, arcuate, ventromedial and ventral premammillary nuclei of the hypothalamus. The lSDA projects more heavily than the mSDA to many of their mid- and hindbrain targets including the caudal, ventrolateral part of the periaqueductal gray, the retrorubral field, the pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus, and the locus coeruleus. In many other areas of the brain, the projections of the mSDA and lSDA are similar in size. These areas include the substantia innominata, the vascular organ of the lamina terminalis, the anterior amygdala, the posterior hypothalamus, the reuniens and paraventricular nuclei of the thalamus, and the pontine periaqueductal gray lateral to the fourth ventricle. The SDA pars compacta (SDApc), a small cell group embedded in the mSDA of males, projects to many fewer areas than the surrounding mSDA. It was strongly labeled when retrograde tracers were injected into the encapsulated part of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, the anteroventral periventricular nucleus, or the mSDA. It was also labeled from the vascular organ of the lamina terminalis, the caudal part of the lateral bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, the lSDA, the area lateral to the mSDA, the arcuate nucleus, the ventral premammillary nucleus, and the ventrolateral part of the ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus. Nothing resembling an SDApc was identified during retrograde tracing in females.