Dendritic domains of medium spiny neurons in the primate striatum: relationships to striosomal borders

Medium spiny neurons are the projection neurons of the striatum. They receive the majority of striatal afferents, and they make up the vast majority of all neurons in the striatum. These densely spiny cells thus constitute a major substrate for input-output processing in the striatum. In the experiments described here we analyzed the dendritic fields of spiny neurons in the squirrel monkey striatum and plotted their orientations with respect to the borders between striosomes and matrix. Medium-sized spiny neurons in the caudate nucleus were filled intracellularly in a fixed-slice preparation with the fluorescent dye Lucifer Yellow. Dendritic arbors were reconstructed following immunostaining of the injected neurons with antiserum to Lucifer Yellow and counterstaining for striosome/matrix compartments. A majority of the medium spiny neurons studied had dendritic arborizations that remained within their compartment of origin. Thus the striosome/matrix subdivision not only partitions neurotransmitter molecules and extrinsic striatal connections into two domains in the primate caudate nucleus, but also constrains the dendritic arbors of many projection neurons there. Other medium spiny neurons, however, in both striosomes and matrix, had dendrites that crossed from one compartment into the other. About a quarter of the spiny neurons reconstructed had at least one such crossing dendrite. These results suggest that compartmentalization of afferent and efferent processing by projection neurons in the primate striatum is not absolute. For a subpopulation of spiny neurons in striosomes and matrix, inputs to one compartment could have a direct influence on output cells of the other.