Temporal effects of habenular lesions on glucose utilization in the anterior raphé nuclei of the rat.
The effects of bilateral electrolytic lesions of both lateral and medial habenular nuclei on local cerebral glucose utilization have been examined in conscious rats by the use of the quantitative 2-deoxy[14C]glucose autoradiographic technique. Habenular lesions markedly reduced the use of glucose in the median raphé and, to a lesser extent, in the dorsal raphé nuclei (which receive major afferents from the lateral habenula) at 7, 14 and 180 days after the lesion. Habenular lesions failed to alter the use of glucose in the entopeduncular nucleus, lateral hypothalamic area and the nucleus of the diagonal band of Broca which project to the habenula. These data add further support to the view that the habenula exerts a major facilitatory influence upon functional activity in the anterior raphé nuclei.