Topic: paraventricular thalamic nucleus

The calretinin-positive (CR+) neurons of the paraventricular thalamic nucleus (PVT) have been recognized to play pivotal role in modulating stress and arousal states. In the accompanying poster (Kota et al.), we defined several brain regions containing glutamatergic, GABAergic or mixed populations of neurons that project to PVT. In this study, we mapped cortical and subcortical afferents in the PVT and examined their distribution relative to the PVT/CR+ neuron population. We used vGLUT2-Cre, vGAT-Cre, and vGLUT2-Cre/vGAT-Flp double transgenic mouse strains to explore subcortical inputs via ant

Neurons of the paraventricular thalamic nucleus (PVT) regulates emotional and motivational behavior via highly collateralized axon arbour innervating several forebrain areas. Maintaining an optimal excitation-inhibition balance is vital for PVT function, yet the sources of glutamatergic and GABAergic inputs are presently unclear. We identified subcortical glutamatergic and GABAergic inputs to the PVT by retrograde viral tracing in vGLUT2-Cre and vGAT-Cre mice, respectively. We found distinct retrogradely labelled cell groups containing purely vGLUT2+positive, purely vGAT+ or mixed neurons thro

The activity of thalamocortical neurons is largely defined by their excitatory inputs. The key determinants of excitatory afferents are the origin, complexity, and density of axon terminals. While some quantitative data are available on these aspects of glutamatergic afferents in animals, organization of excitatory inputs is unknown in the human thalamus. In this study we determined the origin, size and density of glutamatergic axon terminals in the anterior part of the human thalamus, examined their inter- and intra-nuclear heterogeneity as well and s the interindividual variability. We used