Choline acetyltransferase immunoreactive neurons innervating labyrinthine and lateral line sense organs in amphibians.

The goal of the present study was to investigate aspects of the central organization of the neurons belonging to the octavolateralis efferent system of amphibians. The perikarya of three genera, Pleurodeles, Xenopus, and Discoglossus, were located in the brainstem by applying retrograde tracers to the appropriate cranial nerves and choline acetyltransferase immunohistochemistry was used to identify cholinergic neurons. The efferent neurons supplying lateral line (Pleurodeles, Xenopus) and labyrinthine (Pleurodeles, Xenopus, and Discoglossus) end organs were found to intermingle in a single octavolateralis efferent nucleus. The neurons lie bilateral to the labelled nerves in Pleurodeles and ipsilateral in Xenopus and Discoglossus. Separate labelling of the anterior and posterior octavus rami provided no evidence for distinct groupings of efferent neurons that could be associated with auditory and vestibular end organs. In all three species many if not all octavolateral efferent neurons displayed immunoreactivity for choline acetyltransferase. They could be distinguished from the cholinergic facial motoneurons, with which they sometimes intermingle, on the basis of either their distinctive size and shape (Pleurodeles, Xenopus) or their location (Discoglossus). Double labelling in Xenopus confirmed the cholinergic nature of the efferent neurons.