| Abstract: | In visual area V2 of monkeys, cytochrome oxidase (CD) histochemistryreveals a system of stripe-like subregions where densely labeledthick and thin stripes and pale interstripes can be recognized.Several lines of evidence suggest that CO stripe-like subregionsare associated with functional streams in the visual cortex.In the present study, the distribution of retrogradely labeledcallosal cells in V2 and the pattern of CO staining were correlatedusing tangential sections through the flattened cortex. Spectraland coherency analyses of the callosal and CO patterns wereperformed to assess quantitatively the degree of spatial correlationbetween these two patterns. The results showed that labeledcallosal cells accumulated along the V1/V2 border and in finger-likebands that protruded up to 7–8 mm into V2. These callosalbands were in register with thick and thin CO stripes, withrelatively few labeled callosal cells found in interstripe regions.This finding supports the notion that the distribution of callosalconnections in the visual cortex is dictated not only by thetopography of visual areas, but also by the arrangement of corticalfunctional streams. Further, these results extend to interhemisphericpathways the notion of functional specificity currently associatedmainly with some visual intrahemispheric pathways. |
