Afferents to the zona incerta in the rat: a combined retrograde and anterograde study.

In a first set of experiments, the retrograde transport of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) was utilized to investigate the afferent projections to the zona incerta (ZI) in the hooded rat. HRP was introduced in its crystalline form into various sectors of the ZI of seven subjects. The largest contingent of afferents arises from the following centers: the cingulate and somatosensory cortices, central amygdaloid nucleus, ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus, posterior thalamic nucleus, anterior pretectal nucleus, peripeduncular area, deep and intermediate layers of the superior colliculus, dorsal and ventral parabrachial nuclei, principal and interpolar trigeminal subnuclei, and cuneate nucleus. Other centers less systematically or more sparsely labeled were the lateral hypothalamic area, ventrobasal complex, lateral geniculate nucleus pars ventralis, medial geniculate nucleus, interstitial nucleus of Cajal, Darkschewitsch nucleus, perirubral fields, cuneiform, tegmental pedunculopontine, and deep mesencephalic reticular nuclei, pontine reticular nucleus pars oralis, lateral and interpositus cerebellar nuclei, and gracile nucleus. In a second set of experiments, an anterograde tracer (WGA-HRP) was injected in several centers projecting to the ZI in order to localize their terminal fields within this structure. It has been thus possible to distinguish a ventral zone (ventral sector of pars caudalis and pars ventralis) in which the somesthetic (somatosensory cortex, trigeminal complex, and dorsal column nuclei (DCN), collicular, and cerebellar projections terminate, from a dorsal zone (pars dorsalis) to which a limbic input (cingulate cortex and ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus) is directed. In most cases, the labeled terminal fields consisted of well-delimited, narrow bands disposed obliquely, parallel to the cerebral peduncle or the internal capsule. The contingent of somatosensory afferents is relatively large and there is a high degree of overlapping between the different somatosensory terminal fields within the ventral ZI. This suggests a participation of this structure in the treatment of somesthetic information and/or in the transmission of noxious stimuli.