Topographic organization of the corticonuclear projections from the paraflocculus in the albino rat: an autoradiographic orthograde tracing study.

The topographic organization of corticonuclear projections from the paraflocculus was studied in rats by an autoradiographic orthograde tracing method. The corticonuclear fibers from the paraflocculus terminated primarily in the caudoventral part of the lateral cerebellar nucleus and in the lateral part of the posterior interpositus nucleus. The rostrolateral part of the ventral paraflocculus projected only to the lateral nucleus, and the caudomedial part projected only to the posterior interpositus nucleus. Although differential projections from the dorsal and ventral paraflocculi were not clearly observed, the dorsal paraflocculus appeared to project to slightly more dorsal parts of the lateral and posterior interpositus nuclei than did the ventral paraflocculus. The lateral, medial, rostral, and caudal parts of each sublobule tended to project to the ventral, dorsal, rostral, and caudal regions within the caudoventral part of the lateral nucleus, respectively, despite massive overlap in the individual terminal fields. The corticonuclear projection from the dorsal and ventral paraflocculi to the posterior interpositus nucleus were organized in different directions; those from the dorsal paraflocculus were organized rostrocaudally, while those from the ventral paraflocculus were organized mediolaterally. These results suggest that in rats the corticonuclear projections from the paraflocculus are topographically organized in the mediolateral and rostrocaudal directions as well as in the dorsoventral direction.