title: Evidence that thalamic efferent neurones are non-cholinergic: a study in the rat with special reference to the thalamostriatal pathway.
abstract: Controversy surrounds the question as to whether some fibres of the thalamostriatal projection, are cholinergic. The present experiments show that lesions of the parafascicular-intralaminar thalamus produced no reductions in choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) activities in any area of microdissected rat caudate-putamen complex or dorsolateral frontal cortex. We conclude that thalamostriatal projections are entirely non-cholinergic. Furthermore, lesions of the mediodorsal or periventricular thalamus resulted in no change in ChAT activities in their terminal projection areas (medio-/orbitofrontal cortices and nucleus accumbens, respectively). The probability that all thalamic outputs are non-cholinergic is discussed.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002421:Caudate Nucleus / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D002795:Choline O-Acetyltransferase / Q000378:metabolism; D002799:Cholinergic Fibers / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D004525:Efferent Pathways / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D008297:Male; D009410:Nerve Degeneration; D009412:Nerve Fibers / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009714:Nucleus Accumbens / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D011699:Putamen / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D013787:Thalamic Nuclei / Q000033:anatomy & histology*
chemical_list: D002795:Choline O-Acetyltransferase