Prefrontal cortex of the cat: Paucity of afferent projections from the parietal cortex

Summary Twenty-one cat brains with cortical injections of horseradish peroxidase resulting in labelled cells in the thalamic mediodorsal nucleus (MD) were screened for afferent projections from the parietal cortex. Contrary to expectation, nearly the whole prefrontal cortex (PFC) situated around the frontal pole was free of parietal afferents, while a small area in the anterior sylvian gyrus (orbito-insular subregion of PFC) consistently received afferents from the parietal cortex. The few afferents projecting to the cortex around the frontal pole originated exclusively from the convexity of the suprasylvian gyrus, while the great majority of the parietal neurons projecting to the anterior sylvian gyrus was situated within the fundus of the suprasylvian sulcus. While the main regions of the prefrontal cortex of the rhesus monkey receive a substantial projection from the parietal lobe, whereas the main regions of the cat's prefrontal cortex are free of afferents from the parietal cortex, possible differences in the parieto-prefrontal organization of both species are discussed. Furthermore, differences between the orbito-insular subregion and the rest of the PFC are emphasized.This study was carried out mainly at the University of Konstanz.Dr. B. Petrovi-Mini was a visiting scientist at the University of Konstanz. Research was supported in part by grant Ma 795 from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)