Immunohistochemical expression of the c-Fos protein in the spinal trigeminal nucleus following presentation of a corneal airpuff stimulus

This study examined the expression of the c-Fos protein in the rabbit's central nervous system to determine which areas are activated by the presentation of a corneal airpuff. Previous work has shown that pairing a corneal airpuff unconditioned stimulus (US) with a tone conditioned stimulus (CS) produces reliable heart rate (HR) conditioning. In this study restrained awake rabbits received 100 corneal airpuffs. Brains were then processed immunohistochemically for the c-Fos protein. In animals that received the airpuff the ventral portion of the ipsilateral spinal trigeminal subnucleus caudalis (SVc) and interpolaris (SVi), and the dorsal raphe nucleus exhibited a greater number of c-Fos labeled cells compared to control animals. Another group of animals was given microinjections of WGA-HRP in the medial nucleus of the medial geniculate (mMG) to determine if this critical auditory area of the HR conditioning circuitry receives projections from SVc and SVi. These injections produced retrograde labeling in the same areas of SVc and SVi activated by the airpuff. Thus, a corneal airpuff activates neurons in SVc and SVi which could then activate neurons in mMG. This provides additional evidence that CS and US information converge in mMG.