Large-scale functional reorganization in adult monkey cortex after peripheral nerve injury

In adult monkeys, peripheral nerve injuries induce dramatic examples of neural plasticity in somatosensory cortex. It has been suggested that a cortical distance limit exists and that the amount of plasticity that is possible after injury is constrained by this limit. We have investigated this possibility by depriving a relatively large expanse of cortex by transecting and ligating both the median and the ulnar nerves to the hand. Electrophysiological recording in cortical areas 3b and 1 in three adult squirrel monkeys no less than 2 months after nerve transection has revealed that cutaneous responsiveness is regained throughout the deprived cortex and that a roughly normal topographic order is reestablished for the reorganized cortex.