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觉核团中进行分析，并在中脑下丘重新整合。然而，对声音信息整合的详细形态学基础知之甚少。大的GABA能神经元，约占下丘神经元的10%，投射到丘脑，接受密集的兴奋性轴体输入。在这项研究中，我们发现，轴突体的输入来源于几乎所有的下听觉核团以及本地的神经元，这表明大的GABA能神经元整合听觉信息。我们还开发了病毒示踪剂，这是最佳的大GABA能神经元的详细树突形态的研究。

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.