GAD immunoreactivity in pretectal and accessory optic nuclei of the frog mesencephalon.

By an immunocytochemical technique using anti-GAD antibodies, we found a high density of GAD-immunoreactive puncta in the 5 pretectal nuclei and in the nucleus of the basal optic root. These results back up the suggestion that GABAergic modulation of the output of the visual pretectal relay nuclei might underlie the directional asymmetry of the horizontal optokinetic nystagmus and the directional selectivity of pretectal neurons.