Corticofugal connections between the cerebral cortex and the vestibular nuclei in the rat

The distribution of cortical efferent connections to the vestibular nuclei was quantitatively analyzed by means of retrograde axonal transport of horseradish peroxidase, wheat germ agglutinin-horseradish peroxidase, and Fast Blue in rats. The tracer substances were injected into the spinal vestibular nucleus (SpVe), the caudal part of the medial vestibular nucleus (MVe), and nucleus X of Brown Norwegian rats. Projections to the vestibular nuclei were revealed bilaterally, but predominantly contralaterally from five cortical areas: (1) the parietotemporal region (PT) which occupied the caudal two-thirds of the secondary somatosensory area and spread over the caudal part of the primary somatosensory area and the visceral cortex; (2) the anterior forelimb (AF) overlapping the anterior part of the forelimb area and the transitional zone; (3) the anterior hindlimb (AH) overlapping the anterior part of the hindlimb area and the transitional zone; (4) the lateral forelimb (LF) centered in the intercalated zone lateral to the forelimb area; and (5) the ventrotemporal region (VT) located at the ventral part of the temporal cortex. In addition to these cortical fields, the frontal cortex was found to project directly to the vestibular nuclei. These corticofugal projections were verified in experiments in which biocytin was injected into the rat PT. Anterogradely labelled fibers were traced predominantly contralaterally to the SpVe, caudal part of the MVe, and nucleus X. It is suggested that the rat corticofugal projections to the caudal vestibular nuclei modify vestibular reflexes to assist in coordinating eye, head and body movements during locomotion. J. Comp. Neurol. 420:363–372, 2000. © 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.