Abstract
The purpose of our study was to quantify the magnitude of principal and secondary pathways emanating from the middle suprasylvian (MS) region of visuoparietal cortex and terminating in area 18 of primary visual cortex. These pathways transmit feedback signals from visuoparietal cortex to primary visual cortex. (1) WGA-HRP was injected into area 18 to identify inputs from visual structures. In terms of numbers of neurons, feedback projections to area 18 from MS sulcal cortex (areas PMLS, AMLS and PLLS) comprise 26% of inputs from all visual structures. Of these neurons, between 21% and 34.9% are located in upper layers 2–4 and the dominant numbers are located in deep layers 5 and 6. Areas 17 (11.8%) and 19 (11.2%) provide more modest cortical inputs, and another eight areas provide a combined total of 4.3% of inputs. The sum of neurons in all subcompartments of the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) accounts for another 34.8% of the input to area 18, whereas inputs from the lateral division of the lateral-posterior nucleus (LPl) account for the final 11.9%. (2) Injection of tritiated-(3H)-amino acids into MS sulcal cortex revealed substantial direct projections from MS cortex that terminated in all layers of area 18, but with a markedly lower density in layer 4. Projections from MS cortex to both areas 17 and 19 are of similar density and characteristics, whereas those to other cortical targets have very low densities. Quantification also revealed minor-to-modest axon projections to all components of LGN and a massive projection throughout the LP-Pul complex. (3) Superposition of the labeled terminal and cell fields identified secondary, compound feedback pathways from MS cortex to area 18. The largest secondary pathway is massive and it includes the LPl nucleus. Much more modest secondary pathways include areas 17 and 19, and LGN. The relative magnitudes of the secondary pathways suggest that the one through LPl exerts a major influence on area 18, whereas the others exert more modest or minor influences. MS cortex in the contralateral hemisphere also innervates area 18 directly. These data are important for interpreting the impact of deactivating feedback projections from visuoparietal cortex on occipital cortex.
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Abbreviations
- A:
-
layer A of LGN
- A1:
-
layer A1 of LGN
- ALLS:
-
anterolateral visual area of the lateral suprasylvian sulcus (Palmer et al. 1978)
- AMLS:
-
anteromedial visual area of the lateral suprasylvian sulcus (Palmer et al. 1978)
- Aud:
-
auditory cortex of the middle ectosylvian gyrus
- CC:
-
corpus callosum
- Cg:
-
cingulate gyrus
- Cm:
-
magnocellular layers of LGN
- Cp:
-
parvocellular layers of LGN
- LGN:
-
dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus
- LP:
-
lateral posterior nucleus
- LPl:
-
lateral division of the lateral posterior nucleus
- LPm:
-
medial division of the lateral posterior nucleus (Graybiel and Berson 1980, Berson and Graybiel 1978; Raczkowski and Rosenquist 1983)
- MIN:
-
medial interlaminar nucleus subdivision of LGN
- MS:
-
cortex bounding the middle suprasylvian sulcus (areas AMLS, ALLS, PMLS, and PLLS)
- OR:
-
optic radiation
- PE:
-
posterior ectosylvian visual cortex
- PLLS:
-
posterolateral visual area of the lateral suprasylvian sulcus (Palmer et al. 1978)
- PMLS:
-
posteromedial visual area of the lateral suprasylvian sulcus (Palmer et al. 1978)
- Pul:
-
pulvinar nucleus
- SVA:
-
splenial visual area
- V1:
-
primary visual cortex
- V2:
-
secondary visual cortex
- V3:
-
third visual area
- V5/MT:
-
fifth visual area/middle temporal area
- WGA-HRP:
-
wheat germ agglutinin conjugated to horseradish peroxidase
- Wing:
-
wing of LGN
- 7:
-
area 7
- 17:
-
area 17
- 18:
-
area 18
- 19:
-
area 19
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke for financial support and Jarrett Rushmore, Ralf Galuske, Kerstin Schmidt, Julian Budd and an anonymous reviewer for their comments. We also thank Dr. Wolf Singer for hosting BRP at the Max-Planck Institute for Brain Research, Frankfurt, Germany, for the preparation of much of the manuscript. Financial support of DAAD for travel to Frankfurt is gratefully acknowledged.
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Payne, B.R., Lomber, S.G. Quantitative analyses of principal and secondary compound parieto-occipital feedback pathways in cat. Exp Brain Res 152, 420–433 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-003-1554-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-003-1554-x