Cerebellar input to magnocellular neurons in the red nucleus of the mouse: synaptic analysis in horizontal brain slices incorporating cerebello-rubral pathways
Section snippets
Animals
Fifty-eight C57BL/6 mice were used in the study. Pregnant females were obtained from Charles Rivers Laboratories. Pups 12–18 days old were selected for use in the slice experiments, and six of their 15–20 day old littermates were used in anterograde tracing experiments. Animals were housed in a vivarium maintained and supervised by the Center for Comparative Medicine at Northwestern University Medical Center. All experimental procedures were reviewed and approved by the University animal
Results
Figure 1 depicts the basic arrangement of the horizontal slice used for recording from RNm neurons. Usually, the landmarks that were most prominent in the living section were the third ventricle, the fasciculus retroflexus, and the indentation of the brainstem at the lateral margins of the mesencephalon that is evident just opposite the hippocampal formation. The brainstem indentation is located at a level just rostral to the decussation of the superior cerebellar peduncle and just caudal to
Discussion
In this report, a horizontal brain slice preparation was used to characterize the synaptic projection from the cerebellum to the RNm in P12–P18 mouse pups. We provide the first definitive evidence that the projection from the cerebellum to the RNm utilizes NMDA, in addition to non-NMDA receptors. There may also be a direct inhibitory projection. The combination of physiological recording and intracellular labeling provided direct anatomical verification of the identity of recorded neurons. RNm
Summary
We studied synaptic mechanisms in identified RNm neurons in response to contralateral stimulation in a horizontal brain slice that preserves axons from the cerebellar nucleus interpositus. We demonstrated that synaptic transmission in this pathway evokes NMDA, in addition to AMPA, receptor-mediated monosynaptic EPSPs and appears also to evoke monosynaptic GABAA and glycine receptor-mediated IPSPs. The EPSPs will contribute to the generation of the motor commands that emanate from this nucleus,
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by R01 NS36004, NS-HL60097 and NS-HL60969. We wish to acknowledge the invaluable contributions of Dr. S.R. Glaum (deceased) in establishing Dr. Houk’s cellular neurophysiology laboratory in which these experiments were performed. We also acknowledge the helpful advice on the horizontal slice we received from Edgar Garcia-Rill.
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Cited by (23)
The mammalian red nucleus and its role in motor systems, including the emergence of bipedalism and language
2012, Progress in NeurobiologyCitation Excerpt :Mannen (1960) was able to use the term “closed” based on the fact that extranuclear dendrites of the cells inside the nucleus were rarely found to exist outside the nuclear boundary – that is, in the neighboring reticular formation. The mNr of other mammalian species also showed similar features of a closed nucleus (see monkey in Burman et al., 2000; mouse in Jiang et al., 2002). In Fig. 7 taken from human mNr sections, we can readily identify the same three groups first proposed by Mitomo (1942a) i.e. the dorsal, ventral and cell-poor intermediate groups.
Electrophysiological actions of the rubrospinal tract in the anaesthetised rat
2008, Experimental NeurologyCitation Excerpt :In the rat, they decussate at about 1 mm caudal to the RN and then run rostrally through the nucleus en route to the thalamus. The terminals on RN neurones are believed to be collaterals of thalamic afferents (Caughell and Flumerfelt, 1977; also see Shinoda et al., 1988 in the cat; Jiang et al., 2002 in the mouse). Thus, stimuli anywhere in the RN, including the parvocellular region and in more anterior positions, should be able to activate the interpositorubral fibres to the RNm neurones.