MODULAR ORGANIZATION OF RAT NEOCORTEX: VASCULARIZATION, GROWTH AND CONNECTIVITY

Publisher Summary This chapter presents a study that focuses on the modular organization of cortico-cortical connections and its relation to the surface growth and vascularization of the neocortex. The study is based on observations in the neocortex of adult rats and on the development of its parieto-occipital region between embryonic day 13 and adult. It was found from the study that depending on the position within the cortex, small cortical lesions produced various localized degeneration patterns. These patterns depended on differences in the intralaminar spread of terminal degeneration. At common borders between cortical regions, columnar units may form complexes of several columns or modules. In the cerebral cortex of man and rat, the angioarchitecture consists of four sets of radial vessels that branch in different levels of the cortex. Inspite of great differences in the cortical thickness between the species, the radial vessels form terminal branches in L.II/III, in L.IV/V, in L.V/VI, and in the subcortical white matter in both the species.