Descending pathways from the superior collicullus: an autoradiographic analysis in the rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta)

The autoradiographic tracing method has been used to identify the various descending tectofugal pathways and their targets in the rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta). The present data reveal that the majority of descending tectofugal axons arise from collicular laminae which lie ventral to the stratum opticum (layer 3). Such descending axons can be grouped into two major bundles or tracts, i.e., the ipsilateral tectopontine-tectobulbar tract and the crossed tectospinal tract (or the predorsal bundle). There is, in addition to these two major pathways, a smaller, commissural projection. The ipsilateral pathway courses laterally and ventrocaudally to terminate within the parabigeminal nucleus, the mesencephalic reticular formation, the dorsal lateral pontine gray (in several discrete patches), the dorsal lateral wing of the nucleus reticularis tegmenti pontis, and within the nucleus reticularis pontis oralis. Other ipsilateral targets of the deep tectal layers are the cuneiform nucleus and the external nucleus of the inferior colliculus. In several experiments transported protein is also apparent within the substantia nigra. Axons which comprise the tectospinal tract, or the predorsal bundle, cross within the dorsal tegmental decussation and descend within the brainstem in a position slightly lateral to the midline. The most rostral and quite extensive target of the predorsal bundle is the nucleus reticularis tegmenti pontis. As the predorsal bundle courses caudally within the pontine tegmentum, labeled axons enter the dorsal and medial regions of both the oral and the caudal divisions of the nucleus reticularis pontis. At caudal medullary levels, the mojority of the labeled axons comprising the predorsal bundle pass ventrally to end quite profusely with the subnucleus b of the medial accessory nucleus of the inferior olivary complex. Caudal to this only a few scattered, labeled axons can be followed into the cervical spinal cord. Labeled axons also pass to the opposite, or contralateral colliculus via the tectal commissure. Such axons appear to arise and end primarily within the deeper tectal layers. In one experiment, the injection invaded the mesencephalic nucleus of the trigeminal nerve. Labeled axons were apparent within the motor nucleus, the chief sensory nucleus (quite profusely) and within the spinal or descending nucleus of the trigeminal nerve.