Receptive fields of single cells from the face zone of the cat rostral dorsal accessory olive.
Natural stimulation was used to map the receptive fields of single cells recorded from the rostral medial portion of the dorsal accessory olive (rDAO) and the subjacent principal olive (PO) of the barbiturate anesthetized cat. Previous reports indicated a somatotopic mapping of the entire contralateral body within the rDAO which included a small face zone and a larger zone with a very precise map for the limbs. While concentrating on the face zone of the rDAO we confirmed the previously reported somatotopy (face: rostral and medial; forelimb: caudal and medial; hindlimb; caudal and lateral; and trunk: rostal and lateral) and found a somatotopy within, and adjacent to, the face zone. At the border between rDAO regions representing forelimb and face, cells with forelimb fields were found to lie dorsally to cells with facial fields. Within the rDAO face region, cells with large facial fields lie dorsally to cells with small facial fields. In both cases, the more ventral cells lie in the ventral lamella of the PO, which suggests a functional as well as physical continuity between rDAO and the ventral lamella of the PO. We therefore conclude that the face zone in the rDAO and the face zone in the PO form one continuous and complete map of the face with an orderly progression of receptive fields. Furthermore, we have found that stimulation of the red nucleus can inhibit rDAO cells with facial receptive fields just as it does cells with receptive fields from the rest of the body.
Weiss
C
C
Department of Physiology, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL 60611.
Disterhoft
J F
JF
Gibson
A R
AR
Houk
J C
JC
D000818:Animals; D001767:Blinking / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002415:Cats; D003215:Conditioning, Eyelid / Q000502:physiology*; D005145:Face / Q000294:innervation*; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D009847:Olivary Nucleus / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology