The corticocortical projections of the physiologically defined eye field in the rat medial frontal cortex

Abstract

This study investigated in the rat the corticocortical projections of the frontal eye field (FEF), which is located within the medial frontal cortex. The experiments were carried out on Wistar rats. Seven animals received a single iontophoretic injection of Phaseolus vulgaris leucoagglutinin in an FEF site within the medial frontal cortex where intracortical microstimulation elicited eye movements. In these cases, anterogradely labeled fibers and terminal-like elements were found in both hemispheres. The densest labeling was seen in the injected hemisphere, where labeled fibers prevailed in the visual cortex and their laminar distribution differed between the primary and secondary visual cortices. Dense labeled fibers were also seen in the frontal and retrosplenial cortex, whereas a columnar arrangement of terminal-like elements was detected in a restricted part of area 1 of the somatosensory cortex. Contralaterally to the injection site, labeled fibers were distributed mainly in the homotopic region. In two animals, the tracer was injected in a site at the FEF border whose stimulation evoked eye and whisker movements. In these animals, a different distribution of labeling was observed with respect to the other rats in which the tracer was deposited within the FEF, and anterograde labeling was observed in areas 1 and 2 of the parietal cortex of both hemispheres; in addition, no labeling was observed in these cases in the primary visual cortex. These findings suggest that cortical sites confined within the rat FEF are implicated in the control of orienting and exploring behaviors in addition to the control of eye movement.