Staining methods for an electron microscopic analysis of Golgi impregnated nervous tissue and a demonstration of the synaptic distribution upon pulvinar neurons.

A Golgi impregnation method was modified for electron microscopy by reducing the time of the staining period. An acceptable level of the ultrastructural preservation was produced in several species of animals. Various methods were examined for removing the dense silver precipitate in order to show organelles in the stained neurons. Some methods for identifying particular parts of stained neurons in electron microscopy were also investigated by observing a sectioned block under an incident light microscope. The Golgi-EM method was applied to a study of the pulvinar nucleus in the rhesus monkey in order to demonstrate the usefulness and the limits of the method. Three neurons were studied, and at least four types of terminals (RL, F1, F2 and RS) were found synapsing on them. The distribution pattern of each type of terminal was determined upon the three neurons.