SENSORY AND MOTOR LOCALIZATION IN CEREBRAL CORTEX OF PORCUPINE (ERETHIZON DORSATUM)

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Abstract
Visual, auditory, somatic sensory and somatic motor localizations in the cerebral cortex of the porcupine were studied with evoked potential and electrical stimulation methods in 13 animals. That part of the visual area lying on the dorsolateral surface of the hemisphere was defined, using gross photic stimulation. Click stimuli were used to map the auditory response fields. Two areas were defined, one corresponding to auditory areas I and II of Woolsey and Walzl, the other to Tunturi''s third auditory area. This is centered in the face subdivision of somatic sensory area n. The pattern of organization of somatic afferent area I is similar to that of the rat, with the dorsal surface of the body projecting caudally and the apices of the limbs and the snout forward. Somatic afferent area II, as in other animals, is related to both sides of the body. It shows excellent somatotopic differentiation, similar to that found in the dog. The precentral motor area also is basically similar to that of the rat, with the axial musculature represented near the midline and the apices of the limbs more laterally, forming essentially a mirror image of the postcentral area, across a dividing line which corresponds to the central sulcus. The supplementary motor area was defined in part on the medial wall of the hemisphere. The sensory and the motor projections overlap to some extent. The nature of this overlap is considered. Autonomic responses consisting of pupillary dilatation, exophthalmos and retraction of the nictitating membrane were obtained from the medial surface of the hemisphere inferior to the genu of the corpus callosum. Pilo-erection was not produced by cortical stimulation but was obtained on stimulating the optic tectum.

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