Representations of the body surface in areas 3b and 1 of postcentral parietal cortex of cebus monkeys

Abstract

The somatotopic organization of postcentral parietal cortex was determined with microelectrode mapping methods in a New World monkey, Cebus albifrons. As in previous studies in macaque, squirrel and owl monkeys, two separate representations of the body surface were found in regions corresponding to the architectonic fields 3b and 1. The two representations were roughly mirror-images of each other, with receptive field locations matched for recording sites along the common border. As in other monkeys, the glabrous digit tips of the hand and foot pointed rostrally in the Area 3b representation and caudally in the Area 1 representation. Both representations proceeded in parallel from the tail on the medial wall of the cerebral hemisphere to the teeth and tongue in lateral cortex along the Sylvian fissure. Compared with the other monkeys, the tail of the cebus monkey, which is prehensile, was represented in a very large region of cortex in Areas 3b and 1. Like its close relative, the squirrel monkey, the representation of the trunk and parts of the limbs were reversed in orientation in both Area 3b and Area 1 in cebus monkeys as compared to owl and macaque monkeys. The reversals of organization for some but not all parts of the representations in cebus and squirrel monkeys suggest that one line of New World monkeys acquired a unique but functionally adequate pattern of somatotopic organization for the two adjoining fields.