Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (16)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Elston, G. N.
Right arrow Articles by Rockland, K. S.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Elston, G. N.
Right arrow Articles by Rockland, K. S.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Cerebral Cortex, Vol. 12, No. 10, 1071-1078, October 2002
© 2002 Oxford University Press

The Pyramidal Cell of the Sensorimotor Cortex of the Macaque Monkey: Phenotypic Variation

Guy N. Elston and Kathleen S. Rockland1

Vision, Touch and Hearing Research Centre, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Queensland, Queensland, 4072 Australia and , 1 Brain Science Institute, Laboratory for Cortical Organization and Systematics, RIKEN, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako-shi, Saitama, 351-0198, Japan

Guy Elston, Vision, Touch and Hearing Research Centre, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Queensland, 4072 Australia. Email: G.Elston{at}vthrc.uq.edu.au.

Recent studies have revealed striking differences in pyramidal cell structure among cortical regions involved in the processing of different functional modalities. For example, cells involved in visual processing show systematic variation, increasing in morphological complexity with rostral progression from V1 through extrastriate areas. Differences have also been identified between pyramidal cells in somatosensory, motor and prefrontal cortex, but the extent to which the pyramidal cell phenotype may vary between these functionally related cortical regions remains unknown. In the present study we investigated the structure of layer III pyramidal cells in somatosensory and motor areas 3b, 4, 5, 6 and 7b of the macaque monkey. Cells were intracellularly injected in fixed, flat-mounted cortical slices and analysed for morphometric parameters. The size of the basal dendritic arbours, the number of their branches and their spine density were found to vary systematically between areas. Namely, we found a trend for increasing complexity in dendritic arbour structure through areas 3b, 5 and 7b. A similar trend occurred through areas 4 and 6. The differences in arbour structure may determine the number of inputs received by neurons and may thus be an important factor in determining function at the cellular and systems level.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Cereb CortexHome page
G. N. Elston
Cortex, Cognition and the Cell: New Insights into the Pyramidal Neuron and Prefrontal Function
Cereb Cortex, November 1, 2003; 13(11): 1124 - 1138.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.