Afferent fibers to rat cingulate cortex

Afferent fibers to the rat cingulate cortex were studied by the retrograde labeling technique using horseradish peroxidase-wheat germ agglutinin conjugate as the tracer. The results showed that the posterior cingulate cortex, but not the anterior, received input from the anterior dorsal and anterior ventral nuclei of the anterior thalamic group of nuclei (part of the so-called limbic thalamus), and from the subicular complex. The anterior cingulate cortex, but not the posterior, received input from the mediodorsal and ventral thalamic nuclei. Both posterior and anterior cingulate cortex received input from the hippocampus pars anterior; claustrum; globus pallidus; nucleus of the diagonal band of Broca (a particularly reliable source of afferent fibers); anterior medial, lateral, rhomboid, and reuniens nuclei of the thalamus; region of the medial forebrain bundle; periventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus; the dorsal and median raphe; and the locus ceruleus. Corticocortical projections were seen anterior, posterior, and lateral to the injection site, and in the homologous contralateral cingulate cortex. The results demonstrate a prominent source of cingulate afferent fibers from the subicular complex, provide evidence for a functional division of anterior and posterior cingulate cortices in the rat, and provide information about the relative anatomic importance of cingulate afferent fibers from those different regions.