Presence of a cholinergic projection from ventral striatum to amygdala that is not immunoreactive for NGF receptor

By combining the retrograde axonal transport of a fluorescent dye with nerve growth factor (NGF) receptor or choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) immunocytochemistry, we show that the cholinergic neurons that project most strongly to the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala in the ferret do not possess NGF receptor immunoreactivity in their soma and are situated in the ventral striatum, an area known to receive a massive reciprocal projection from the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala.