The Journal of Neuroscience, January 1, 2002, 22(1):305-314
Differential Metabolic Activity in the Striosome and Matrix
Compartments of the Rat Striatum during Natural Behaviors
Lucy L.
Brown1,
Samuel
M.
Feldman2,
Diane M.
Smith1,
James R.
Cavanaugh2,
Robert F.
Ackermann3, and
Ann M.
Graybiel4
1 Departments of Neurology and Neuroscience, Albert
Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York 10461, 2 Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York,
New York 10003, 3 Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral
Neurobiology, University of Alabama School of Medicine, Birmingham,
Alabama 35294, and 4 Department of Brain and Cognitive
Sciences and the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
The striosome and matrix compartments of the striatum
are clearly identified by their neurochemical expression patterns and anatomical connections. To determine whether these compartments are
distinguishable functionally, we used
[14C]deoxyglucose metabolic mapping in the
rat and tested whether neutral behavioral states (free
movement, gentle restraint, and focal tactile stimulation under gentle
restraint) were associated with regions of high metabolic activity in
the matrix, in striosomes, or in both. We identified metabolic peaks in
the striatum by means of image analysis, striosome-matrix boundaries
by [3H]naloxone binding, and primary somatosensory
corticostriatal input clusters by injections of anterograde tracer into
electrophysiologically identified sites in SI. Peak metabolic activity
was primarily confined to the matrix compartment under each behavioral
condition. These findings show that during relatively neutral
behavioral conditions the balance of activity between the two
compartments favors the matrix and suggest that this balance is present
in the striatum as part of normal behavior and processing of afferent activity.
Key words:
basal ganglia; caudate-putamen; deoxyglucose; metabolic
mapping; somatosensory cortex; striosome; matrix
Copyright © 2002 Society for Neuroscience 0270-6474/02/221305-10$05.00/0