Summary
Physiological studies have demonstrated a highly organized somatotopic representation of the body surface in SI cortex of rat. This representation is correlated morphologically with the presence of barrel-shaped structures in layer IV. Conventional staining techniques reveal barrels in the latter part of the first postnatal week. Recently, the peroxidase conjugates of lectins, which recognize glycosylated molecules, have been used to study barrel field formation. Con A, for example, has been shown to bind primarily to prospective barrel sides and septa as early as postnatal day 3 (PND-3) in mouse. To date, investigations of SI cortex using the lectin (Arachis hypogaea) peanut agglutinin (PNA) have been confined to the study of the barrel field representation of the face and mystacial vibrissae in the mouse. In the present study we extend these findings to the development of the representation of the entire body surface called the rattunculus. Rats ranging from PND-1 (first 24 h after birth) to PND-12 were anesthetized with Nembutal and perfused with 4% paraformaldehyde and 2% glutaraldehyde in 0.2 M sodium cacodylate buffer. Brains were removed, flattened tangentially, and sectioned on a vibratome at 30–120 microns. Sections were blocked in TRIS-buffered saline (TBS) plus 2% bovine serum albumin and incubated in peanut lectin at 4° C. Following incubation, sections were washed with TBS and processed using peroxidase histochemistry. Lectin binding in the prospective forelimb representation was apparent by PND-5 whereas lectin binding to the prospective face-mystacial vibrissae representation occurred before PND-4. These results suggest that body part representations show individual variations during early pattern formation. In rat, the representation of the limbs may lag behind the representation of the face-mystacial vibrissae during early postnatal development. This developmental gradient within the cortex may reflect a differential expression of lectin receptors.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Chapin JK (1986) Laminar differences in sizes, shapes, and response profiles of cutaneous receptive fields in the rat SI cortex. Exp Brain Res 62:549–559
Chapin JK, Lin CS (1984) Mapping the body representation in the SI cortex of anesthetized and awake rats. J Comp Neurol 229:199–213
Cooper NGF, Steindler DA (1986a) Lectins demarcate the barrel subfield cortex of the early postnatal mouse. J Comp Neurol 249:157–169
Cooper NGF, Steindler DA (1986b) Monoclonal antibody to glial fibrillary acidic protein reveals a parcellation of individual barrels in the early postnatal mouse somatosensory cortex. Brain Res 380:341–348
Dawson DR, Killackey HP (1987) The organization and mutability of the forepaw and hindpaw representations in the somatosensory cortex of the neonatal rat. J Comp Neurol 256:246–256
Graham RC, Karnovsky MJ (1966) The early stages of absorption of injected horseradish peroxidase in the proximal tubules of mouse kidney: ultrastructural cytochemistry by a new technique. J Histochem Cytochem 14:291–302
Hutchins JB, Casagrande VA (1988) Glial cells develop a laminar pattern before neuronal cells in the lateral geniculate nucleus. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 85:8316–8320
Jeanmonod D, Rice FL, Van der Loos H (1981) Mouse somatosensory cortex: alterations in the barrelfield following receptor injury at different early postnatal ages. Neuroscience 6:1503–1535
Killackey HP, Belford GR(1979) The formation of afferent patterns in the somatosensory cortex of the neonatal rat. J Comp Neurol 183:285–304
Lamour Y, Jobert A (1982) Laminar distribution and convergence of deep and superficial peripheral inputs in the forelimb representation of rat SI somatosensory cortex. J Physiol (Paris) 78:158–162
Nussbaumer J-C, Van der Loos H (1985) An electrophysiological and anatomical study of projections to the mouse cortical barrelfield and its surroundings. J Neurophysiol 53:686–698
O'Brien TF, Steindler DA, Cooper NGF (1987) Abnormal glial and glycoconjugate dispositions in the somatosensory cortical barrel field of the early postnatal reeler mutant mouse. Dev Brain Res 32:309–317
Oland LA, Tolbert LP (1987) Glial patterns during early development of antennal lobes of Manduca sexta: a comparison between normal lobes and lobes deprived of antennal axons. J Comp Neurol 255:196–207
Rakic P (1972) Mode of cell migration to the superficial layers of fetal monkey neocortex. J Comp Neurol 145:61–84
Rice FL, Van der Loos H (1977) Development of the barrels and barrel field in the somatosensory cortex of the mouse. J Comp Neurol 171:545–560
Sanderson KG, Welker W, Shambes GM (1984) Re-evaluation of motor cortex and of sensorimotor overlap in cerebral cortex of albino rats. Brain Res 292:251–260
Seo ML, Ito M (1987) Reorganization of rat vibrissa barrelfield as studied by cortical lesioning on different postnatal days. Exp Brain Res 65:251–260
Smart IHM, McSherry GM (1982) Growth patterns in the lateral wall of the mouse telencephalon. II. Histological changes during and subsequent to the period of isocortical neuron production. J Anat 134:415–442
Smart IHM (1983) Three dimensional growth of the mouse isocortex. J Anat 137:683–694
Steindler DA, Cooper NGF, Faissner A, Schachner M (1989) Boundaries defined by adhesion molecules during development of the cerebral cortex: the J1 tenascin glycoprotein in the mouse somatosensory cortical barrel field. Dev Biol 131:243–260
Van der Loos H, Woolsey TA (1973) Somatosensory cortex: structural alterations following early injury to sense organs. Science 179:395–398
Verley R, Gaillard P (1978) Postnatal ontogenesis of potentials elicited in the barrelfield of mice by stimulation of the maxillary nerve. Neurosci Lett 10:121–127
Waters RS, McCandlish C, Cooper NGF (1988) Early development of forelimb representation in SI cortex barrel subfield in neonatal rats as demonstrated with peanut agglutinin binding: evidence for differential development of the forelimb and face. Soc Neurosci Abstr 170:12
Welker C (1971) Microelectrode delineation of fine grain somatotropic organization of SmI cerebral neocortex in albino rat. Brain Res 26:259–275
Welker C (1976) Receptive fields of barrels in the somatosensory neocortex of the rat. J Comp Neurol 166:173–190
Welker C, Woolsey TA (1974) Structure of layer IV in the somatosensory neocortex of the rat: description and comparison with the mouse. J Comp Neurol 158:437–454
Welker E, Van der Loos H (1986a) Is areal extent in sensory cerebral cortex determined by peripheral innervation density. Exp Brain Res 63:650–654
Welker E, Van der Loos H (1986b) Quantitative correlation between barrel-field size and the sensory innervation of the whiskerpad: a comparative study in six strains of mice bred for different patterns of mystacial vibrissae. J Neurosci 6:3355–3373
Wise SP, Jones EG (1976) The organization and postnatal development of the commissural projection of the rat somatic sensory cortex. J Comp Neurol 163:313–344
Wise SP, Jones EG (1977) Cells of origin and terminal distribution of descending projections of the rat somatic sensory cortex. J Comp Neurol 175:129–158
Wise SP, Jones EG (1978) Developmental studies of thalamocortical and commissural connections in the rat somatic sensory cortex. J Comp Neurol 178:187–208
Wong-Riley MTT, Welt C (1980) Histochemical changes in cytochrome oxidase of cortical barrels after vibrissal removal in neonatal and adult mice. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 77:2333–2337
Woolsey TA, Van der Loos H (1970) The structural organization of layer IV in the somatosensory region (SI) of mouse cerebral cortex. Brain Res 17:205–242
Woolsey TA, Wann JR (1976) Areal changes in mouse cortical barrels following vibrissal damage at different postnatal ages. J Comp Neurol 170:53–66
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
McCandlish, C., Waters, R.S. & Cooper, N.G.F. Early development of the representation of the body surface in SI cortex barrel field in neonatal rats as demonstrated with peanut agglutinin binding: evidence for differential development within the rattunculus. Exp Brain Res 77, 425–431 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00275001
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00275001