Telencephalic connections in lizards. II. Projections to anterior dorsal ventricular ridge.

Three distinct cytoarchitectonic regions were identified within the anterior dorsal ventricular ridge (ADVR) of two species of lizards, Gekko gecko and Iguana iguana. These regions have been named according to their general topographical positions: medial area, caudolateral area, and rostrolateral area. Injections of horseradish peroxidase throughout the ADVR demonstrated that each of the three areas of the ADVR receives projections from specific thalamic nuclei which are associated with specific sensory modalities. The medial area receives an auditory thalamic projection from nucleus medialis. The caudolateral area receives thalamic projections from nucleus medialis posterior and nucleus posterocentralis. The latter two nuclei were shown to receive projections from the spinal cord and, therefore, are presumed to be associated with body somatosensory information. The rostrolateral area receives a thalamic projection from nucleus rotundus, which receives visual information. In addition, the mesencephalic tegmentum and the thalamic nucleus dorsomedialis project to the entire ADVR. The latter projection is similar to the diffuse cortical projections of the intralaminar thalamic nuclei in mammals. These findings support previous suggestions that the ADVR is comparable to sensory regions of the mammalian neocortex.