Metabolic mapping of visual areas in the behaving cat: a [14C]2-deoxyglucose study

Visually responsive cortical areas and subcortical nuclei were studied in the awake cat using the 2-deoxyglucose technique. Visual input was confined to one hemisphere by unilaterally sectioning the optic tract, the corpus callosum and the commissura anterior. Within the intact hemisphere, numerous cortical regions were distinguishable in the autoradiographs due to differential labelling. Comparison of the intact with the visually deafferented hemisphere confirmed the visual character of eighteen cortical areas (areas 17, 18, 19, 20a, 20b, 21a, 21b, the posteromedial lateral, posterolateral lateral, anteromedial lateral, anterolateral lateral, dorsal lateral, ventral lateral, and posterior suprasylvian areas, the splenial and anterior ectosylvian sylvian areas, insular visual area and posterior area 7) and revealed the visual nature of an area in the posterior cingulate gyrus which had not been described previously. We refer to this area as cingulate visual area (CVA). This area exhibits a gradient in interhemispheric differences along a caudorostral axis similar to that observed in posterior area 7 which is in keeping with the strong and topographic connections between CVA and posterior area 7. These results support the validity of metabolic mapping for the characterisation of cortical areas.