Figure 4.

PBN projecting neurons were mapped onto a prototypical template and reconstructed in three dimensions through multiple z-stacks. (A) The location of the cell of interest from Figure 3 is marked with a red asterisk on the horizontal coordinate based subdivision map from Corson et al. 2012. Cells with dendrites extending through both terminal fields were imaged at high magnification (60x plus 1.5x optical zoom; N.A. 1.4; z-step = 0.15 μm) and z-stacks containing the neuron in question were aligned and reconstructed in the x, y, and z planes. This example is a composite of four individual z-stacks that have been reconstructed to visualize the entire dendritic tree contained within a single 100 μm physical section. (C) The cell morphology is then traced and the cell type identified, in this case a multipolar neuron. Scale in A = 25 μm. R = Rostral, L = Lateral, IL = Intermediate Lateral subdivision, 4V = fourth ventricle, st = solitary tract, DCN = dorsal cochlear nucleus. Arrowhead marks the caudal border of the rNTS, operationally defined as where the NTS separates from the wall of the 4^th ventricle. Caudal NTS subdivision abbreviations: pc = parvicellular, ce = central, com = commissural, I = intermediate, VL = ventrolateral.