Visual Areas in Posterior Parietal Cortex

University Of California Davis, Davis CA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

The goal of this study is to examine the organization of area 5 of in the posterior parietal cortex of New World titi monkeys. Historically, area 5 has been largely regarded as a somatosensory area, but recent data confirms that it is a bimodal visual and somatosensory area, with specialized functions for visually guided reaching with the forelimb. Nearby posterior parietal visual areas such as 7a, LtP and VIP have been explored with single and multiunit recording techniques, but the total extent and internal organization of area 5 has not been developed, and little is known about its connections pertaining to the reaching behavior described above. The titi monkey cortical fields are organized similarly to the macaque, but are more easily accessible due to the relatively fewer number of sulci in the posterior parietal region. In this study, multiunit electrophysiological recordings will be used to guide the placement of neuroanatomical tracers into area 5 of the titi monkey to examine the anatomical connections of area 5 with other visual and motor areas of the brain. Multiunit electrophysiology will also be used to examine the visual and somatosensory responses within area 5. Histochemical methods will also be used to determine the internal anatomical organization of area 5, and will be compared with the connectional and physiological data. This combination of multiunit electrophysiology with connectional and histochemical methods in the same animals is a novel and powerful approach.