AUTHOR=Haidarliu Sebastian , Yu Chunxiu , Rubin Naama , Ahissar Ehud TITLE=Lemniscal and extralemniscal compartments in the VPM of the rat JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neuroanatomy VOLUME=Volume 2 - 2008 YEAR=2008 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neuroanatomy/articles/10.3389/neuro.05.004.2008 DOI=10.3389/neuro.05.004.2008 ISSN=1662-5129 ABSTRACT=
The ventral posteromedial thalamic nucleus (VPM) of the rat contains at least two major vibrissa-representing compartments: the dorsomedial (VPMdm), which belongs to the lemniscal afferent pathway, and the ventrolateral (VPMvl), which belongs to the extralemniscal afferent pathway. Although input–output projections and functional characteristics that distinguish these two compartments were recently clarified, a comprehensive structural analysis of these compartments and the border between them was lacking. This paper addresses structural and functional relationships between the VPMdm and VPMvl. We found that the size of the VPM is almost constant across individual rats. Next, we computed a canonical map of the VPM in the oblique plane, where structural borders are best visualized. Using the canonical map, and sequential slices cut in oblique and coronal planes, we determined the border between the VPMdm and VPMvl in the standard coronal plane, and verified it with