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 Previous Article
Volume 16, Number 11,
Issue of June 1, 1996
pp. 3775-3789
Copyright ©1996 Society for Neuroscience
A Primary Acoustic Startle Pathway: Obligatory Role of Cochlear
Root Neurons and the Nucleus Reticularis Pontis Caudalis
Received Nov. 8, 1995; revised March 13, 1996; accepted March 19, 1996.
Younglim Lee1,
Dolores E. López2,
Edward G. Meloni1, and
Michael Davis1
1 Yale University School of Medicine, Abraham Ribicoff
Research Facilities of The Connecticut Mental Health Center, New Haven,
Connecticut 06508, and 2 Departamento de Biología
Celular y Patología, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de
Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain
proposed a primary acoustic startle circuit in
rats consisting of the auditory nerve, posteroventral cochlear nucleus,
an area near the ventrolateral lemniscus (VLL), nucleus reticularis
pontis caudalis (PnC), and spinal motoneurons. Using fiber-sparing
lesions, the present study reevaluated these and other structures
together with the role of neurons embedded in the auditory nerve
[cochlear root neurons (CRNs)], recently hypothesized to be involved
in acoustic startle. Small electrolytic lesions of the VLL or
ventrolateral tegmental nucleus (VLTg) failed to eliminate startle.
Large electrolytic lesions including the rostral ventral nucleus of the
trapezoid body (rVNTB) and ventrolateral parts of PnC or lesions of the
entire PnC blocked startle. However, small NMDA-induced lesions of the
rVNTB failed to block startle, making it unlikely that the rVNTB itself
is part of the startle pathway. In contrast, NMDA lesions of the full
extension of the ventrolateral part of the PnC blocked startle
completely, suggesting that the ventrolateral part of the PnC is
critically involved. Bilateral kainic acid lesions of CRNs also blocked
the startle reflex completely, providing the first direct evidence for
an involvement of CRNs in startle. This blockade probably was not
caused by damage to the auditory nerve, because the lesioned animals
showed intact compound action potentials recorded from the ventral
cochlear nucleus. Hence, a primary acoustic startle pathway may involve
three synapses onto (1) CRNs, (2) neurons in PnC, and (3) spinal
motoneurons.
Key words:
startle;
cochlear root neurons;
reticular
formation;
cochlear nucleus;
compound action potential;
lateral
lemniscus;
ventral tegmentum
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