FIGURE 1.

Motor thalamic nuclei and single-neuron labeling with a viral vector expressing membrane-targeted GFP. The motor thalamic complex VA–VL of rats is divided into two portions, IZ and EZ (A,B). The rostroventrally located IZ receives abundant basal ganglia inputs that are large varicosities immunoreactive for GAD67 (C,D), whereas the caudodorsally situated EZ admits cerebellar inputs consisting of many giant VGluT2-immunoreactive terminals (E,F). Thus, the two portions are called inhibitory input-dominant zone (IZ) and excitatory subcortical input-dominant zone (EZ), respectively. In contrast, fine cortically derived VGluT1-immunoreactive axon terminals are distributed rather homogeneously not only in the VA–VL, but also in the entire thalamic nuclei (G,H). When an appropriately diluted solution of viral vectors expressing palGFP is injected into the VA–VL, single neurons are labeled green by chance (arrows in I,I′,J), and visualized up to the tip of the dendrites by the immunoperoxidase staining (J′). AD, anterodorsal nucleus; APt, anterior pretectal area; AV, anteroventral nucleus; CL, central lateral nucleus; LD, lateral dorsal nucleus; LP, lateral posterior nucleus; ml, medial lemniscus; Pc, paracentral nucleus; Pf, parafascicular nucleus; Po, posterior nucleus; Rt, thalamic reticular nucleus; VM, ventral medial nucleus; VPpc, parvocellular part of the ventral posterior nucleus. Modified with permission from Figure 1 of Kuramoto et al. (2011) and Figure 2 of Kuramoto et al. (2009). Scale bar in (H) applies to (A–H), that in (I′) to (I,I′), and that in (J) to (J,J′).