A morphological study on integration of auditory information on inhibitory tectothalamic neurons in the inferior colliculus.

声音信息在脑干下部的几个听核中进行分析，并在中脑下丘中重新整合。然而，关于声音信息整合的详细形态学基础却鲜为人知。大的gaba能神经元，约占下丘神经元的10%，并投射到丘脑，接受密集的兴奋性轴体细胞输入。在这项研究中，我们发现轴体细胞输入几乎来自所有的下听核以及局部神经元，这表明大的gaba能神经元整合了听觉信息。我们还开发了病毒示踪剂，用于研究大gaba能神经元的详细树突形态。

Information of sound is analyzed in several auditory nuclei in lower brainstem, and re-integrated in the inferior colliculus in the midbrain. Detailed morphological basis on the integration of sound information, however, is poorly known. Large GABAergic neurons, which composeapproximately 10% of inferior collicular neurons and project to the thalamus, receive dense excitatory axosomatic inputs. In this study, we showed that the axosomatic inputs originated from almost all lower auditory nuclei as well as local neurons, suggesting that large GABAergic neurons integrate auditory information. We also have developed viral tracers which are optimal for the study on detailed dendritic morphology of large GABAergic neurons.