Auditory brainstem of the ferret: sources of projections to the inferior colliculus

The organization of the auditory brainstem in adult, darkly pigmented ferrets was studied by using the retrograde transport of the lectin wheat germ agglutinin-horseradish peroxidase injected into one inferior colliculus. Retrogradely labelled neurons were found bilaterally in every nucleus of the auditory brainstem. The greatest number of labelled neurons was found in the cochlear nuclei contralateral to the injection site, the ipsilateral medial superior olivary nucleus, both lateral superior olivary nuclei, the ipsilateral ventral nucleus of the lateral lemniscus, both dorsal nuclei of the lateral lemniscus, and the contralateral inferior colliculus. Quantitative assessment of the projections from the cochlear nuclei showed that the number of contralaterally projecting neurons exceeded the number of ipsilaterally projecting neurons by about 50 to one. This ratio remained relatively stable over a wide range of volumes of injected lectin, whereas the absolute number of labelled neurons on each side varied by at least twofold for a constant volume of lectin. These results provide basic data on the ferret auditory system and demonstrate quantitatively some properties of the projections between the cochlear nucleus and the inferior colliculus.