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Updated: Aug 17, 2026

High-resolution Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Methods for Human Midbrain
Published on: May 10, 2012
Morphological evidence for a vestibulo-thalamo-striatal pathway via the parafascicular nucleus in the rat
H Lai1, T Tsumori, T Shiroyama
1Department of Anatomy, Shimane Medical University, 693-8501, Izumo, Japan.
Abstract:
We observed by anterograde and retrograde tracing techniques that projection fibers originating from the medial vestibular nucleus (MVe) of the rat terminated in the dorsal two-thirds of the lateral part of the parafascicular thalamic nucleus (PF), where neurons sending their axons to the dorsolateral part of the striatum existed. It was further revealed that the vestibular fibers made asymmetrical synaptic contacts mainly with dendrites and additionally with soma of the striatum-projecting PF neurons. These data suggest that output signals from the MVe may be transmitted disynaptically to the striatal neurons via the PF neurons.
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