A restraining box for the head and body of the electric fish Gymnotus carap
o was constructed and coupled to a micromanipulator, permitting us to prepa
re an atlas of the telencephalon with stereotaxic parameters. A photograph
and a schematic drawing of an animal's head is presented, showing two skin
eletroreceptors that were used as external landmarks. A sagittal section of
the telencephalic structure is also presented, whose vertical bars indicat
e the frontal planes that compose the atlas. The frontal planes of the atla
s consist of serial sections spaced 600 or 500 mu m apart in the rostrocaud
al axis. Sections mapped with acetylcholinesterase are shown, intercalated
with Nissl-stained sections. The acetylcholinesterase sections proved to be
useful for the delimitation of certain nuclei and for the exact localizati
on of small fissures and fiber tracts. A brief description of major cytoarc
hitectural subdivision and connections of the telencephalon is provided. (C
) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.