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A single-neuron tracing study of arkypallidal and prototypic neurons in healthy rats

Brain Structure and Function volume 221, pages 4733–4740 (2016)Cite this article

Abstract

The external globus pallidus (GP) is known as a relay nucleus of the indirect pathway of the basal ganglia. Recent studies in dopamine-depleted and healthy rats indicate that the GP comprises two main types of pallidofugal neurons: the so-called “prototypic” and “arkypallidal” neurons. However, the reconstruction of complete arkypallidal neurons in healthy rats has not been reported. Here we visualized the entire axonal arborization of four single arkypallidal neurons and six single prototypic neurons in rat brain using labeling with a viral vector expressing membrane-targeted green fluorescent protein and examined the distribution of axon boutons in the target nuclei. Results revealed that not only the arkypallidal neurons but nearly all of the prototypic neurons projected to the striatum with numerous axon varicosities. Thus, the striatum is a major target nucleus for pallidal neurons. Arkypallidal and prototypic GP neurons located in the calbindin-positive and calbindin-negative regions mainly projected to the corresponding positive and negative regions in the striatum. Because the GP and striatum calbindin staining patterns reflect the topographic organization of the striatopallidal projection, the striatal neurons in the sensorimotor and associative regions constitute the reciprocal connection with the GP neurons in the corresponding regions.

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Acknowledgments

We are deeply grateful to Prof. Paul Bolam for his sincere encouragement and critical reading of the manuscript. This study was supported by Grants-in-Aid from The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) for Scientific Research (25282247, 15K12770); and for Scientific Researches on Innovative Areas “Prediction and Decision Making” (26120725) and “Adaptive Circuit Shift” (26112001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Neural Circuitry, Graduate School of Brain Science, Doshisha University, Kyotanabe, Kyoto, 619-0394, Japan

    Fumino Fujiyama

  2. CREST, JST, Saitama, 332-0012, Japan

    Fumino Fujiyama

  3. Department of Anatomy, Shiga University of Medical Science, Shiga, 520-2121, Japan

    Takashi Nakano & Jun Udagawa

  4. Department of Morphological Brain Science, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 606-8501, Japan

    Wakoto Matsuda, Takahiro Furuta & Takeshi Kaneko

Authors
  1. Fumino Fujiyama
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  2. Takashi Nakano
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  3. Wakoto Matsuda
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  4. Takahiro Furuta
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  5. Jun Udagawa
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  6. Takeshi Kaneko
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Correspondence to Fumino Fujiyama.

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Fujiyama, F., Nakano, T., Matsuda, W. et al. A single-neuron tracing study of arkypallidal and prototypic neurons in healthy rats. Brain Struct Funct 221, 4733–4740 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-015-1152-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-015-1152-2

Keywords

  • Basal ganglia
  • Single neuron tracing
  • Globus pallidus
  • Striatum
  • Arkypallidal neuron
  • Prototypic neuron