The A11 catecholamine cell group: another origin of the dopaminergic innervation of the amygdala.

A combination of fluorescent retrograde tracing and immunofluorescence histochemistry for tyrosine hydroxylase was employed to re-examine the origin of the dopaminergic innervation of the amygdala in the rat. The present data show that the major input source of this innervation includes the subparafascicular thalamic nucleus as well as the substantia nigra pars compacta and ventral tegmental area, but not the substantia nigra pars lateralis.