The ganglionic eminence--a putative intermediate target of amygdaloid connections

The superior part of the ganglionic eminence has been shown to act as an intermediate target for outgrowing axons of projections between the thalamus and the cerebral cortex. This study aims at investigating whether amygdaloid projections transiently contact the inferior portion of the human ganglionic eminence which directly borders upon the amygdala. Between 16 and 20 weeks of gestation a high number of small fiber bundles which were immunolabelled with anti-MAP1b and anti-SNAP-25 could be traced from the amygdala towards the mantle zone of the ganglionic eminence. These fiber bundles left a fiber system which coursed from the amygdala towards the entorhinal cortex. Within the mantle zone of the ganglionic eminence immunoreactive puncta indicative of fiber termination were observed. After 22 weeks of gestation the number of fibers entering the ganglionic eminence gradually decreased. These results provide the first evidence that the marginal zone of the inferior ganglionic eminence is likely to constitute an intermediate target for growing axons which belong the amygdaloid projection to the entorhinal cortex.