A comparison of possible markers for chandelier cartridges in rat medial prefrontal cortex and hippocampus.

Chandelier neurons and their characteristic arrays of axonal terminals, known as cartridges, have been implicated in a variety of psychiatric and neurological disorders including schizophrenia and epilepsy. As a result, these neurons have been extensively examined in the brains of several species using a range of markers. However, these markers have not been systematically compared in a single species for their robustness in labelling chandelier cell cartridges.

Quantification of morphological differences in boutons from different afferent populations to the nucleus accumbens.

The nucleus accumbens (Acb) receives convergent glutamatergic inputs from the prefrontal cortex (PFC), central thalamus, basolateral amygdala and the ventral subiculum of the hippocampus. The principal neurons of the nucleus accumbens are modulated by specific sets of convergent afferent inputs, the local circuit neurons also receive a substantial number of glutamatergic inputs, but the full complement of these has yet to be established. The aim of these studies was to define characteristics of the different glutamatergic afferent inputs to the nucleus accumbens that would aid their identification.

Basolateral amygdala efferents to the ventral subiculum preferentially innervate pyramidal cell dendritic spines.

The basolateral amygdala and the ventral subiculum of the hippocampal formation are two of the major limbic-related regions within the brain, both of which project heavily to the nucleus accumbens. The nucleus accumbens is regarded as the limbic-motor interface, in view of these limbic afferent and its somatomotor and autonomic efferent connections. These afferent inputs have been suggested to converge monosynaptically on cells within the accumbens and are hypothesised to play a role in functions such as affective motivational behaviour.