Recent studies have shown that neuronal connections occur between primary auditory and visual cortices of the primate (Falchier et al., 2002; Rockland and Ojima, 2003), and it has been suggested that these projections are involved in multisensory processing in these lower-level, core areas of cortex. The present study was conducted to determine if similar connections occur in other higher mammals such as carnivores (ferrets; Mustela putorius). Large injections of sensitive neuroanatomical tracer were placed within the core areas of auditory cortex in 3 ferrets. After transport and processing, labeled axon terminals were found not in primary visual cortex, but in area 19, or V3. Injection of tracer into V3 of 3 additional ferrets produced retrogradely labeled neurons not in the core region of auditory cortex, but along its posterior borders. These data indicate that cross-modal connections occur in the ferret cortex, but do not support the notion that they exist between the primary representations of the different sensory modalities.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:vcu.edu/oai:scholarscompass.vcu.edu:etd-1888 |
| Date | 01 January 2006 |
| Creators | Wang, Meng Y. |
| Publisher | VCU Scholars Compass |
| Source Sets | Virginia Commonwealth University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Theses and Dissertations |
| Rights | © The Author |
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