Organization of the Connections between the Parietal Associative Zone and the Primary Sensory Zones in the Cat Neocortex

Abstract

In acute experiments on cats, we studied the impulse activity of 262 neurons of the parietal associative zone (PAZ, field 5). Among them, 129 cells [100 “silent” units and 29 units generating background activity (BA)] were identified as output neurons, while 133 cells with the BA were interneurons of the intrinsic cortical neuronal circuits. Electrical stimulation of the primary visual, auditory, or somatosensory cortices evoked no impulse responses in silent output PAZ neurons, while output neurons with the BA and interneurons (more than 65 and 80% of the cell units, respectively) generated clear responses (more frequently, phasic). Stimulation of the auditory and visual cortices exerted mostly inhibitory effects, while stimulation of the somatosensory cortex provided mostly excitatory influences. The ratios of neurons generating primary excitatory and inhibitory responses to stimulation of the visual, auditory, and somatic cortices were 0.3:1, 0.6:1, and 3.2:1, respectively. More than 95% of the field-5 neurons were influenced from the primary sensory zones via di- and/or polysynaptic pathways. Monosynaptic excitatory inputs from the visual cortex were identified for 3.8% of interneurons and 6.9% of output PAZ neurons; for the auditory cortical inputs, the respective figures were 1.7 and 3.5%. Monosynaptic connections with the somatic cortex were found only for 4% of the interneurons under study. It has been concluded that interaction of heteromodal signals coming to the PAZ via the corticopetal and associative inputs occurs on neurons of all the cortical layers.