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Sensory Cortical Reorganization following Peripheral Nerve Injury

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Brain Injury and Recovery

Abstract

The somatotopic order of the body representation found in somatosensory cortex has been described in great detail in the monkey (Merzenich et al., 1978; Kaas et al., 1983), cat (Dykes et al., 1980; Sretavan and Dykes, 1983; Felleman et al., 1983), and several other species (Chapin and Lin, 1984; Wall and Cusick, 1984; Sur et al., 1978, 1980). In each case, a linear progression of recording sites in the cortex produces a precisely organized sequence of receptive fields across the body. The pattern of receptive fields creates a map of the body with a surprising degree of resolution. For example, by recording from small clusters of neurons, Merzenich et al. (1978) observed neural activity elicited from receptive fields only a few millimeters in diameter. As the electrode was moved in horizontal steps as small as 50 µm, the receptive field loci shifted progressively until, when a cortical distance of 500 µm had been traversed, the receptive fields no longer overlapped the first ones encountered. In the rat, comparable groups of neurons may serve only one vibrissa (Welker, 1971). In many mammalian species, several maps of the body have been reported (cf. Dykes and Ruest, 1986). The conclusion seems inescapable that the cortex contains several high-resolution, precisely organized representations of the body surface.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Physiology, Surgery, and Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 1A1, Canada

    Robert W. Dykes & Raju Metherate

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  1. Robert W. Dykes
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  2. Raju Metherate
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Psychology Department and Neural Sciences Program, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, 63130, USA

    Stanley Finger

  2. The Brain Research Laboratory, Department of Psychology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, 27695-7801, USA

    T. E. Levere

  3. Programs in Occupational Therapy and Neural Sciences, Departments of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Preventive Medicine, and Psychology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, 63110, USA

    C. Robert Almli

  4. Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey, 07102, USA

    Donald G. Stein (Dean of the Graduate School and Associate Provost for Research) (Dean of the Graduate School and Associate Provost for Research)

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Dykes, R.W., Metherate, R. (1988). Sensory Cortical Reorganization following Peripheral Nerve Injury. In: Finger, S., Levere, T.E., Almli, C.R., Stein, D.G. (eds) Brain Injury and Recovery. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0941-3_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0941-3_15

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