[Structural organization of the prefrontal cortex in cats and differences between it and the same area in monkeys].
It has been demonstrated that similar to that in monkeys, prefrontal dorso-lateral cortex in cats significantly differs from the medio-basal cortex not only in the structure and level of differentiation, but also in its thalamic projections. In cats, definite topography in the distribution of projections from the medio-dorsal thalamic nucleus to the lobe pole cortex of the hemisphere was demonstrated which in general features is similar to the mode of projection of this nucleus in monkeys. This rendered it possible to homologize separate parts of the medio-dorsal thalamic nucleus and preforntal cortex in these animals. Together with these similarities, considerable differences were found as well. In cats, predominance of phylogenetically ancient medio-basal fields was noted, whereas in monkeys--the predominance of more young dorso-lateral fields was observed. In cats, parvocellular portion is absent from the medio-dorsal thalamic nucleus, its homologue being very small; therefore dorso-lateral cortex to which this portion of the nucleus is projected, is developed very poorly. In monkeys, this portion occupies up to 2/3 of the nucleus, dorso-lateral cortex being perfectly developed. These data suggest that progressive evolution of the prefrontal cortex, associated with a higher behavioural level, followed mainly the development of dorso-lateral surface, this development being closely related to the onset and projection of parvocellular portion of the medio-dorsal thalamic nucleus to this region.
D000818:Animals; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002415:Cats / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D000882:Haplorhini; D009434:Neural Pathways; D013787:Thalamic Nuclei / Q000033:anatomy & histology*
Strukturnaia organizatsiia prefrontal'noĭ kory koshki i ee otlichiia ot takovoĭ u obez'ian