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Journal of Neuroscience, Vol 7, 3529-3543, Copyright © 1987 by Society for Neuroscience
Terminal arbors of axons projecting to the somatosensory cortex of the adult rat. I. The normal morphology of specific thalamocortical afferents
KF Jensen and HP Killackey
Department of Psychobiology, University of California, Irvine.
A characteristic feature of the rat somatosensory neocortex is a discrete
topographic representation of the facial whiskers. Afferent fibers
projecting to this vibrissae representation were "bulk-labeled" by
injecting horseradish peroxidase into the white matter. Terminal arbors
with the morphological characteristics of Lorente de No's (1949) "specific"
thalamocortical afferents were then reconstructed through serial sections.
These terminal arbors, characterized by the discrete organization of their
dense plexus in layer IV, have a laminar distribution of boutons that
parallels the laminar pattern of terminal degeneration resulting from
lesions of the ventral posterior nucleus of the thalamus. The regional
distribution of different-sized arbors corresponds to the distribution of
vibrissae-related clusters of different sizes. Larger arbors were found in
the posteromedial region corresponding to the mystacial vibrissae
representation, while smaller arbors were found in the anterolateral region
corresponding to the representation of the anterior sinus hairs. Terminal
arbors were also reconstructed from sections stained simultaneously to
demonstrate the pattern of vibrissae-related clusters. The greatest
concentration of boutons on these axons occurred within a single
vibrissae-related cluster. Furthermore, when 2 fibers terminated within a
single cluster, their terminal arbors appeared to be largely coextensive.
The morphology, size, and distribution of these terminal arbors support the
hypothesis that the layer IV plexus of a single specific thalamocortical
afferent tends to fill a vibrissae-related cluster. Thus, the organization
of specific thalamocortical afferents may be responsible for clustered
organization within the somatotopic map of the rodent neocortex.
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