Intrinsic connections of the rat cochlear nucleus [Abstract]

This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 16th Annual Australian Neuroscience Meeting held in Adelaide, 28-31 January 1996.This is a publisher’s version of an abstract of a paper from the Proceedings of the Australian Neuroscience Society 1996, published by Australian Neuroscience Society.In mammals three subdivisions of the cochlear nucleus can be distinguished: the dorsal (DCN), the posterior (PVCN) and the anteroventral (AVCN) cochlear nucleus (CN) I. The intrinsic connections between and within these areas have not been well defined. Wickesberg et al.2 revealed that projections from DCN to AVCN in the mouse are frequency specific and tonotopic. In contrast Synder and Leake in the cat revealed projections from AVCN to PVCN and DCN but only modest projections from PVCN and DCN to AVCN with no frequency specificity observed. These previous studies utilized the retrograde tracer horseradish peroxidase. We investigated this apparent contradiction further, using neurobiotin, a retrograde and anterograde tracer, to examine connections within the cochlear nucleus of the rat, with emphasis on the AVCN subdivision