Gastard Myriam, Jensen Sarah L, Martin John R, Williams Evelyn A, Zahm Daniel S
Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, St. Louis University School of Medicine, 1402 South Grand Boulevard, St. Louis, MO 63104, USA.
Brain Res. 2002 Dec 13;957(2):207-22. doi: 10.1016/s0006-8993(02)03513-8.
Ascending cholinergic projections and the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) have both been implicated in attentional and orienting mechanisms leading to adaptive behavioral responses. In view of this, the present study was carried out to identify relevant neuroanatomical relationships in the form of projections from the CeA and a related structure, the dorsolateral divison of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (dlBST), to parts of the basal forebrain and mesopontine tegmentum that contain magnocellular cholinergic neurons. The CeA and dlBST are components of the 'central division of extended amygdala'. Following injections of the anterogradely transported compounds, Phaseolus vulgaris-leucoagglutinin or biotinylated dextran amine, into the CeA or dlBST, sections were processed with immunohistochemical reagents to localize the anterograde tracer and choline acetyltransferase (ChAT). The trajectories of efferent projections from CeA and dlBST were qualitatively similar. Few ChAT-immunoreactive (ir) neurons were present within the extended amygdala or regions containing the dense terminations of its efferent projections, with the striking exception of the caudal sublenticular/anterior amygdaloid region. The ChAT-ir neurons there, however, were significantly smaller and weakly ChAT-ir as compared to those located outside of the dense extended amygdaloid terminations. In the mesopontine tegmentum, the robust downstream projection from the extended amygdala was centered medial to ChAT-ir neurons of the pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus. The differentiated character of the relationships between extended amygdala and forebrain and mesopontine districts containing ChAT-ir neurons that give rise to ascending projections may have significant implications for the control of cortical and diencephalic acetylcholine release and accompanying effects on attention, vigilance and locomotor activation.
上行胆碱能投射和杏仁核中央核（CeA）均与导致适应性行为反应的注意力和定向机制有关。鉴于此，本研究旨在确定CeA和一个相关结构——终纹床核背外侧部（dlBST）向基底前脑和中脑桥被盖中含有大细胞胆碱能神经元的部分发出的投射形式的相关神经解剖学关系。CeA和dlBST是“扩展杏仁核中央部”的组成部分。在将顺行运输化合物菜豆凝集素或生物素化葡聚糖胺注射到CeA或dlBST后，用免疫组织化学试剂处理切片，以定位顺行示踪剂和胆碱乙酰转移酶（ChAT）。CeA和dlBST传出投射的轨迹在性质上相似。在扩展杏仁核或其传出投射密集终末所在区域内，很少有ChAT免疫反应性（ir）神经元，尾侧豆状核下/前杏仁核区域是显著的例外。然而，与位于密集扩展杏仁核终末之外的ChAT-ir神经元相比，那里的ChAT-ir神经元明显更小且ChAT-ir较弱。在中脑桥被盖中，扩展杏仁核强大的下游投射集中在脚桥被盖核ChAT-ir神经元的内侧。扩展杏仁核与含有产生上行投射的ChAT-ir神经元的前脑和中脑桥区域之间关系的差异特征，可能对皮质和间脑乙酰胆碱释放的控制以及对注意力、警觉性和运动激活的伴随影响具有重要意义。
