Organization of the visual thalamus: corticothalamic projections from the primary visual area in the opossum

The projections from the visual cortex to thalamic nuclei in the opossum were investigated by degeneration and radioautographic methods. Efferent axons from the striate cortex course from the internal capsule to the thalamus in two bundles, one of which innervates the reticular and dorsal lateral geniculate nuclei, while the other bundle innervates the external layer of the ventral lateral geniculate nucleus. Both bundles course along and through terminal fields found in the lateral posterior nucleus. The visuotopic organization inferred from the corticofugal pathway shows that projection lines in the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (DLGN) run along medio-lateral strips including both the beta and alpha segments, across the quasi-laminae of retino-geniculate projection, and that naso-temporal axes in the visual field run in a dorso-ventral direction through the DLGN. The external layer of the ventral lateral geniculate nucleus receives a projection from the striate cortex and bilateral projections from the retina, and naso-temporal axes in the visual field are represented along a dorso-ventral direction in this layer. The striate cortical projections cover approximately the lateral two-thirds of the lateral posterior nucleus, overlapping a small retinal terminal field, and naso-temporal axes in the visual field are represented onto the cortico-recipient zone in a mirror-symmetric direction to that of the adjoining DLGN. In all these three cortico-recipient zones, dorso-ventral axes in the visual field are represented in a rostro-caudal direction.