PREFRONTAL CORTEX OF RAT .I. CORTICAL PROJECTION OF MEDIODORSAL NUCLEUS .2. EFFERENT CONNECTIONS

The cortical projection field of the mediodorsal nucleus of the thalamus (MD) was identified in the rat using the Fink-Heimer silver technique for tracing degenerating fibers. Small stereotaxic lesions confined to MD were followed by terminal degeneration in the dorsal bank of the rhinal sulcus (sulcal cortex) and the medial wall of the hemisphere anterior and dorsal to the genu of the corpus callosum (medial cortex). No degenerating fibers were traced to the convexity of the hemisphere. The cortical formation receiving a projection from MD is of a relatively undifferentiated type which had been previously classified as juxtallocortex. A study of the efferent fiber connections of the rat's MD-projection cortex demonstrated some similarities to those of monkey prefrontal cortex. A substantial projection to the pretectal area and deep layers of the superior colliculus originates in medial cortex, a connection previously reported for caudal prefrontal (area 8) cortex in the monkey. Sulcal cortex projects to basal olfactory structures and lateral hypothalamus, as does orbital frontal cortex in the monkey. The rat's MD-projection cortex differs from that in the monkey in that it lacks a granular layer and appears to have no prominent direct associations with temporal and juxtahippocampal areas. Furthermore, retrograde degeneration does not appear in the rat thalamus after damage to MD-projection areas, suggesting that the striatum or thalamus receives a proportionally larger share of the MD projection in this animal than it does in the monkey. Comparative behavioral investigations are in progress to investigate functional differences between granular prefrontal cortex in the primate and the relatively primitive MD-projection cortex in the rat. © 1969.