The interactive connectome created by this project allows you to customize the display of all known brain connections of the rat hippocampal formation, parahippocampal region and the retrosplenial cortex in a way that is most relevant to your research question. It is built upon a relational database that contains all reported anatomical connections in these regions in the rat. The database may eventually become published online on www.temporal-lobe.com, but is currently offline.
Features:

- The connectome incorporates in a single display all known anatomical literature to date of one species (i.e. the rat). In many previous reviews, data from different species were combined into “an average” description. This connectome offers an objective description of current anatomical data.

- A search was performed on publications reporting tract-tracing studies on RSC-HF-PHR connections in PubMed (www.PubMed.gov) and Embase (www.embase.com). The following inclusion criteria were used: 1) Tract-tracing studies or studies which report intracellular filling of single cells; 2) Studies which used healthy, genetically un-altered, untreated adult rats were included; 3) Publications written or translated into English or in a language using roman print.

- The connectional information was retrieved from the papers, including information from tables and figures, using the following criteria: 1) It was clear where anterogradely filled terminals or retrogradely labeled cell bodies were located; 2) The location of the injection site was clearly described; 3) Injection sites did not include multiple brain areas or fiber bundles; 4) Lesion studies were discarded; 5) Explicitly reported non-excitatory projections were excluded; 6) Contralateral projections were excluded.

- All connections reported in the literature are included whereas in most reviews only the prominent connections are reported. In this connectome almost 2600 connections are present.

- The connectome is interactive; users can switch on and off connections between cortical layers in the network. This will allow users to better comprehend the impact of a lesion, make anatomically correct theoretical models of this region, and help interpret electrophysiological data of this common laboratory animal.

- The connectome points out gaps in anatomical knowledge. In the connectome, several levels of detail are available in order to be able to draw all reported anatomical connections. This enables users to quickly spot which connections are described in the literature with or without much detail.