ORGANIZATION OF AUDITORY, SOMATIC SENSORY, AND VISUAL PROJECTION TO ASSOCIATION FIELDS OF CEREBRAL CORTEX IN THE CAT

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The organization of auditory, somatic sensory, and visual projection to association cortex of the cat was studied, using chloralose anesthetia. All modalities of stimulation resulted in identical topographic distributions of association responses in the four cortical association fields. These fields included two on the middle suprasylvian gyrus, one on the anterior lateral gyrus, and one on the cortex surrounding the cruciate sulcus, including anterior sigmoid gyrus, banks of cruciate sulcus and cingulate gyrus. Association responses were present after total bilateral removal of all other cortex. The depth distributions of association responses in cortex were identical for all modalities of stimulation and paralleled those for primary responses. All of the evidence presented in this and the other papers of the series supports the hypothesis that a peripheral stimulus delivered to any portion of the auditory, somatic, or visual receptive fields activates one and the same central association system in an undifferentiated manner. This system projects in an equivalent fashion to the same four cortical fields. Evidence is presented suggesting that primary type auditory responses of the anterior suprasylvian gyrus do not represent cortical activity in this region of the cortex.