EFFERENT CONNECTIONS OF THE LAMINA TERMINALIS, THE PREOPTIC AREA AND THE INSULAR CORTEX TO SUBMANDIBULAR AND SUBLINGUAL GLAND OF THE RAT TRACED WITH PSEUDORABIES VIRUS

Neurones situated in the lamina terminalis (organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis, median preoptic nucleus and subfornical organ) as w ell as within medial and lateral parts of the preoptic area and in the insular cortex become transneuronally labelled following pseudorabies virus injections into the submandibular or the sublingual gland. Thes e neurones are efferently connected to a chain of central neurones dir ected to secretory or vascular tissue of the submandibular or the subl ingual gland. By varying the postinoculation time a stepwise infection of different forebrain nuclei was registered, with the hypothalamic p araventricular nucleus and the lateral hypothalamic area being the fir st forebrain structures labelled. Such early infected neurones within these hypothalamic nuclei are in all likelihood third order neurones r egulating salivary secretion and might have functioned as relays trans mitting virus to other forebrain structures. The above mentioned foreb rain areas together with several other hypothalamic nuclei as well as the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, the central nucleus of the am ygdala and the substantia innominata, seem to be the widespread anatom ical basis for the central regulation of salivary gland function. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.