The mammalian visual cortex is believed to be parcellated into functional radial units called modules, which are composed of neurons with similar physiological properties. The first demonstration of modularity was provided in 1957 by Mountcastle in the somatosensory cortex, and has since been demonstrated in the visual cortex, where neurons within a vertical unit of the visual cortex process information about the same portion of the visual field. / A new approach has been proposed for identifying functionally similar neurons by examining their molecular characteristics. Indeed, the arrangement of neurons into functional arrays might be reflected by the presence of specific molecules (e.g Cat-301 patches, cytochrome oxidase blobs). / In this experiment, immunohistochemistry was used to examine the tangential and radial distribution and development of a subset of pyramidal neurons in the kitten and adult cat visual cortex using the monoclonal antibody SMI-32, that recognizes the non-phosphorylated form of neurofilament H. It was found that the neurons recognized by this antibody were grouped into clusters, forming regularly spaced patches in the infragranular and supragranular layers. These anatomical findings support the notion of an intrinsic columnar organization.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.22768 |
| Date | January 1994 |
| Creators | Mareschal, Isabelle |
| Contributors | Baker, Curtis (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Psychology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001447467, proquestno: MM05592, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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