Anterograde degeneration study of the superior colliculus in Tupaia glis: Evidence for a subdivision between superficial and deep layers

Abstract

The large, well developed superior colliculus of the tree shrew with its highly differentiated layers is ideal for analyzing the connections of individual layers. Our most significant finding concerns the differences between the projections of the superficial and deep layers. Lesions limited to those strata which receive projections from the retina and striate cortex (superficial 3 layers) result in terminal degeneration almost exclusively within the pulvinar, the pretectal area, and the dorsal and ventral lateral geniculate nuclei. In each case, the greatest amount of degeneration was present in the pulvinar, supporting previous suggestions that the tecto‐pulvinar pathway conveys visual information. In sharp contrast, lesions limited to the deep layers which receive multimodal input from nonstriate areas of the neocortex and from a variety of subcortical centers, produce terminal degeneration in entirely different thalamic nuclei — certain intralaminar nuclei, the subthalamic region, and a region homologous to the posterior nuclear group of Rose and Woolsey ('49). The deep lesions also result in terminal degeneration within the inferior colliculus, the parabigeminal nucleus, the reticulo‐tegmental nucleus, and the inferior olivary nucleus, as well as in the brainstem reticular formation. Finally, deep lesions produced scattered degenerating fibers in the motor facial nucleus. Our results favor a division of the tree shrew superior colliculus into superficial and deep portions based on strikingly different projection patterns and may be useful in resolving certain problems of thalamic homology.