Relationships between interhemispheric cortical connections and visual areas in hooded rats

The correlation between visual topography within striate and lateral extrastriate visual cortex and the pattern of callosal connections to those areas has been studied in gray rats. The procedure was to put multiple injections of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) into the occipital cortex of the right hemisphere. The cortical areas 17 and 18a in the left hemisphere were electrophysiologically mapped upon stimulation of the right eye. Reference lesions were placed at selected recording sites. Horizontal sections of the left cortex were reacted for the demonstration of HRP. This permitted the comparison of the visual and callosal maps in the same animal. Like in other mammals, the callosal projections coincide with the cortical representations of the vertical midline and the more central regions of the visual field. The heavy line of labelled neurons and terminations embedded within the primary callosal band at the 17/18a border coincides with the representation of the vertical meridian. It provides the boundary between V1 and the maps located lateral to it. In area 18a, the anterolateral is contained in its anterior half, whereas areas lateromedial and laterointermediate are contained in its posterior half. The acallosal 'island', caudal to the acallosal 'body', contains the map known as posterolateral. There are two laterolateral (LL) maps which coincide with the acallosal 'islands' lateral to the acallosal 'body'; laterolateral anterior is more rostral than LL and these are retinotopically organized as mirror images of each other. Lateral to LL, there is a suggestion of an additional map, which could correspond to a pararhinal area. These results may be useful to understand aspects of a basic mammalian plan in the organization of visual cortex.