Specificity of projection among cells of the zona incerta

We have examined whether individual cells of the zona incerta of the thalamus have widespread projections across the brain. Double injections of different coloured fluorescent latex beads (red or green) were made, in various combinations, into regions of neocortex, dorsal thalamus or brainstem of Sprague-Dawley rats. These regions were chosen since they have been shown previously to receive projections from the zona incerta. We also made injections of different coloured beads into different regions of these same brain centres (ie, distinct cortical areas or individual dorsal thalamic and brainstem nuclei). In general, our results show that cells of the zona incerta have projections limited to one of these brain centres only. We saw very few double-labelled incertal cells after double injections of different coloured latex beads into either the neocortex/dorsal thalamus, neocortex/brainstem or dorsal thalamus/brainstem. Further, we show that within each of these brain centres, the projection patterns of individual incertal cells is rather restricted, since double injections of different coloured beads into separate regions of the same centre resulted in few double-labelled incertal cells. Taken together, these results suggest a very clear specificity of projection among cells of the zona incerta. Thus, although the cells of the zona incerta receive a plethora of inputs from many sources, it appears that its cells have a very clear and focussed output to distinct regions of the brain.