Morphology of neurons in the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) of mammals as revealed by intracellular injections into fixed brain slices

Abstract

I have investigated the morphology of neurons in the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) by means of intracellular injections in fixed tissue in order to study whether neurons in visual (dorsocaudal part), somatosensory (intermediate part), or limbic/motor (rostral part) sectors in the rat, rabbit, and cat differ morphologically in relation to their different sensory cortical or thalamic inputs. In addition, I have compared the different mammalian species to ask whether there is a morphological difference of TRN neurons according to reported differences in the intrinsic thalamic organisation, for example, due to the presence of GABAergic local circuit neurons in the majority of thalamic nuclei in the cat and the lack of those neurons in most of the rat thalamic nuclei, and presynaptic dendrites in the cat but not in the rat. In all animals investigated so far, neurons in the caudal (visual) and intermediate (somatosensory) part of the TRN have an elongated dendritic morphology in all three species, but some neurons in the rostral part, in particular in dorsal sections, have a distinctive multipolar morphology. Neurons have round, ovoid, or elongated somata ranging in area between 150 and 860 μm². In general 4–8 first order dendrites emerge directly from the two poles of the soma or from a thick stem segment. Most of the dendrites then run parallel to the borders of the nucleus extending for relatively long distances, up to 450 μm, but remain inside the border of the nucleus. Only a few (1–3) dendrites could be observed to run perpendicular to the border of the nucleus and generally only for a short distance (20–70 μm). Some of the smooth first order dendrites give rise to second order dendrites (up to 200 μm in length), which then branch into short (15–70 μm) third order dendrites. Dendritic spines and varicosities, spine‐like protusions and/or hair‐like processes are mainly found on second and third order dendrites. Surprisingly, the shape, arrangement, and the size of the dendritic field are not strictly related to the shape and size of the nucleus. In mammalian species with a comparatively narrow TRN (rat and cat) the dendritic field size was similar to that in the rabbit with a broad TRN. There was considerable variability in dendritic morphology in the caudal and intermediate parts of TRN. However, in contrast to two recent studies in the rat TRN I have found no obvious basis for classification of neurons in the mammalian TRN according to dendritic morphology. In addition, there seems to be no difference in neuronal morphology of TRN neurons in relation to different intrinsic thalamic organisation within or between species.