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Cerebral Cortex Advance Access published online on March 30, 2005
Cerebral Cortex, doi:10.1093/cercor/bhi057
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org

Article

Principles Governing Auditory Cortex Connections

Charles C. Lee 1* and Jeffery A. Winer 1

1 Division of Neurobiology, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-3200, USA

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Charles C. Lee, E-mail: chazwell{at}uclink4.berkeley.edu


  Abstract

Topographic maps are common constituents of the primary auditory, visual, and somatic sensory cortex. However, in most cortical areas, no such maps have yet been identified, posing a conceptual problem for theories of cortical function centered on topography. What principle guides the organization of these other areas? We investigated this issue in cat auditory cortex. The connectional topography of five tonotopic areas and eight non-tonotopic areas was assessed using retrograde tract tracing and quantified by three metrics: clustering, dispersion, and separation. Clustering measures the spatial density of labeled neurons, dispersion provides an index of their spread, and separation serves as a scaling metric. These parameters each show that all auditory cortical regions receive precise and equally topographic connections from thalamic, corticocortical, and commissural sources. This isotropic principle suggests a common substrate for coordinating communication across the cortex and may reflect common mechanisms related to the developmental patterning of connections. This unifying principle extends to auditory and prefrontal cortex, and perhaps to other neocortical areas.

Keywords: maps; thalamus; tonotopy; topography.
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