NEURONS OF THE ACOUSTIC THALAMUS THAT PROJECT TO THE AMYGDALA CONTAIN GLUTAMATE

Injection of WGA-HRP into the lateral nucleus of the amygdala produced retrograde axonal transport to cell bodies in areas of the acoustic thalamus: the medial division of the medial geniculate body, the suprageniculate nucleus, and the posterior intralaminar nucleus. Glutamate-immunoreactive neurons were present throughout the acoustic thalamus, including the regions containing the retrogradely labeled neurons. Many of the retrogradely labeled cells were also immunoreactive for glutamate. Thus, glutamate is present in those neurons of the acoustic thalamus that project to the amygdala and may contribute to neurotransmission and synaptic plasticity in this pathway.