| Abstract: | Intracerebral injections of the neuron-destroying agent, kainic acid, and electron microscopic examination of the injected and the target areas, have been used in order to confirm some controversial anatomical connections in the Septohabenulointerpeduncular system. Kainic acid injections in the lateral habenula (LHb) caused the selective degeneration of several LHb neurons, sparing the neurons of the medial habenula (MHb). Degenerating terminals were found in well-known target areas of the LHb (dorsal and median raphe nuclei) and, in addition, in the interpeduncular nucleus (IPN), thus confirming the existence of a small LHb-IPN projection. Kainic acid injections in the nucleus of the diagonal band of Broca (NDBB) resulted in severe ncuronal degeneration in the nucleus itself and in terminal degeneration in the LHb and MHb as well as, to a lesser extent, in the IPN. No evidence of distant neuronal damage was apparent by light (conventional and cupric-silver stain) and electron microscopic examination, in nuclei receiving afferent inputs from the injected areas and projecting in turn to the target areas. Furthermore, terminal degeneration was not observed in the Hb and IPN after injections of kainic acid in areas not projecting toward these nuclei (hippocampus and striatum). In the present study, therefore, problems of interpretation due to the possible occurrence of distant neuronal damage could be overcome by control tests. On the basis of the selectivity and sensitivity of its action, kainic acid seems particularly useful in the study of small projections and in attempts to discriminate between differential connections of adjacent neuronal populations. |
