Thalamic reticular input to the rat visual thalamus: a single fiber study using biocytin as an anterograde tracer

This study describes the axonal projections of single thalamic reticular (TR) neurons within the visual thalamus in rats. Experiments were performed under urethane anesthesia and reticular cells were labeled by extracellular or juxtacellular microiontophoretic applications of biocytin. The axonal arborizations of 19 TR cells projecting to the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (DLG) or to the lateral dorsal/lateral posterior complex (LD/LP) were reconstructed from serial horizontal sections. It was found that single TR cells projected within the limits of a single thalamic nucleus, either the DLG or the LD/LP complex, where their terminal fields formed rostrocaudally oriented rods (length: approximately 800 microns; diameter: approximately 100 microns) densely packed with grape-like boutons and varicosities. In addition, none of the labeled TR cells possessed recurrent axonal collaterals that ramified within the reticular complex itself. The functional implications of these morphological data for the synchronization of thalamic oscillations are discussed.