Laminar origins of visual corticocortical connections in the cat

The interconnections among visual areas in cat cortex were studied with respect to the specific laminae in which the cortically projecting neurons are located. Single injections of HRP were made through recording micropipettes into nine different visual areas. In 15 cortical areas the laminar distribution of neurons which were retrogradely filled with HRP was plotted. In this way we determined the laminar origins of the cortical projections to the nine separate cortical visual areas which were injected. There are three major observations. First, areas 17 and 18 are the only two visual areas in which layers II and III are the primary site of cortically projecting cells; in the other 13 areas the deeper layers of cortex provide a large percentage of such neurons. Second, within any one cortical area, cortically projecting neurons may be distributed among different layers; the specific layer depends upon the cortical target of those neurons. Third, any one cortical area receives projections from several different cortical layers, the specific layers being dependent upon the area from which the projection originates. An individual cortical area, therefore, contributes to several different cortical visual circuits, with each of these circuits defined by the laminar connections of its neurons.