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PMID: 11160449 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S. Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Cerebellar projections to the prefrontal cortex of the primate.

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience ·Vol. 21 ·No. 2 ·2001-01-15 ·Pages 700-12

Middleton FA, Strick PL

Abstract

The cerebellum is known to project via the thalamus to multiple motor areas of the cerebral cortex. In this study, we examined the extent and anatomical organization of cerebellar input to multiple regions of prefrontal cortex. We first used conventional retrograde tracers to map the origin of thalamic projections to five prefrontal regions: medial area 9 (9m), lateral area 9 (9l), dorsal area 46 (46d), ventral area 46, and lateral area 12. Only areas 46d, 9m, and 9l received substantial input from thalamic regions included within the zone of termination of cerebellar efferents. This suggested that these cortical areas were the target of cerebellar output. We tested this possibility using retrograde transneuronal transport of the McIntyre-B strain of herpes simplex virus type 1 from areas of prefrontal cortex. Neurons labeled by retrograde transneuronal transport of virus were found in the dentate nucleus only after injections into areas 46d, 9m, and 9l. The precise location of labeled neurons in the dentate varied with the prefrontal area injected. In addition, the dentate neurons labeled after virus injections into prefrontal areas were located in regions spatially separate from those labeled after virus injections into motor areas of the cerebral cortex. Our observations indicate that the cerebellum influences several areas of prefrontal cortex via the thalamus. Furthermore, separate output channels exist in the dentate to influence motor and cognitive operations. These results provide an anatomical substrate for the cerebellum to be involved in cognitive functions such as planning, working memory, and rule-based learning.

MeSH Terms
Animals Brain Mapping Cebus Cerebellar Nuclei/cytology,virology Cerebellum/cytology,virology Fluorescent Dyes Herpesvirus 1, Human/growth & development Neural Pathways/cytology,virology Neurons/cytology,virology Prefrontal Cortex/cytology,surgery,virology Thalamus/cytology,virology
Chemicals
Fluorescent Dyes
Authors & Affiliations
2 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Middleton F A
Departments of Neurobiology and Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15261, USA.
Strick P L
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Article Info
Journal
The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience
Abbr.
J Neurosci
ISSN
1529-2401
Published
2001-01-15
Pages
700-12
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
8102140
PMCID
PMC6763818
Subset
IM
Grants
NIMH NIH HHS · MH11262 · United States
NIMH NIH HHS · R01 MH056661 · United States
NIMH NIH HHS · MH56661 · United States
NIMH NIH HHS · F31 MH011262 · United States
NIMH NIH HHS · MH48185 · United States
External Links
PubMed source PMC Full Text View journal details
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