Whole-brain mapping of projection from mice lateral septal nucleus

The lateral septal nucleus (LS) plays a critical role in emotionality, social behavior, and feeding processes, through neural connecting with hippocampus and hypothalamus. We investigated the neurocircuits of LS by herpes simplex virus 1 strain H129 (H129) and pseudorabies virus stain Bartha (PRV). Virus H129 indicates that LS directly project to some cerebral nuclei (nucleus accumbens, bed nuclei of the stria terminalis, amygdala), part of hypothalamus (median preoptic, paraventricular, dorsomedial nucleus, and lateral area) and thalamus (medial habenula, paraventricular nuclei, parataenial, reuniens, and the medial line nuclei), and the pontine central gray. Then the LS secondary project to CA3 and CA1 field of the hippocampal formation, lateral and medial preoptic area, and the mammillary body. PRV tracing shows that LS are mainly receiving primary inputs from the amygdala, hippocampus, hypothalamic, thalamus, midbrain and hindbrain, and secondary inputs from dorsal and central linear nucleus raphe, lateral part of the superior central nucleus raphe, also the ventral anterior-lateral complex, the intermediodorsal nucleus, the central medial nucleus, the rhomboid nucleus, and the submedial nucleus of the thalamus. The neurocircuits revealed here would help to understand and further research on the function of LS.