Corticocortical connections predict patches of stimulus‐evoked metabolic activity in monkey somatosensory cortex

Stimulus‐evoked metabolic activity in the anterior parietal cortex (areas 3a, 3b, 1, and 2) occurs in the form of column‐like patches. Similar patches characterize the connections to, within, and from these fields. The relation of the patches elicited metabolically to those formed by retrograde or anterograde transport, however, is not clear. If a type of projection connecting areas 3a, 3b, 1, and 2 transmits sensory information among these cortical fields, the resultant projection pattern may directly contribute to the definition of somatosensory metabolic “columns.” To test this possibility, electrophysiological recordings in areas 3b and 1 of Macaca fascicularis monkeys characterized stimuli that elicited the best neuronal response at a specific cortical site. Iontophoretic injections of wheat germ agglutinin‐horseradish peroxidase (WGA‐HRP) were subsequently made into the identified cortical sites. Two days later, the animals were injected with 2‐deoxyglucose (2DG) and received the somatic stimulus previously determined to best activate the neurons isolated at the injected cortical site. After injections of WGA‐HRP into physiologically defined loci in area 3b, the patches of transported label within areas 3b and 1 were colocalized with evoked metabolic activity. Injections of WGA‐HRP into area 1 produced anterogradely labeled terminals in areas 1 and 2 that also overlapped with patches of evoked metabolic activity, as did patches of retrogradely labeled cells located in area 3b. Patches of anterograde label found in area 3b after area 1 injections, however, were not coincident with the metabolically activated patches. These findings suggest that excitatory information is transmitted from area 3b to area 1 in a way that connects clusters of cells with similar response properties.