Corticocortical connections to the motor cortex from the posterior parietal lobe (areas 5a, 5b, 7) in the cat demonstrated by the retrograde axonal transport of horseradish peroxidase.
Neurons in the parietal region of the cerebral cortex, projecting to the ipsilateral distal forelimb area of the motor cortex (area 4 gamma) were identified in the cat brain using the horseradish peroxidase (HRP) retrograde tracing method. After making microinjections of HRP into the distal forelimb area of the motor cortex, clusters of HRP-labeled cell bodies were observed in different regions of the ipsilateral parietal cortex. In particular these clusters of labeled cells were found in areas 5a, 5b and 7. The area 5a cluster is formed from closely packed irregularly-shaped cells, the area 5b cluster is made up of dispersed medium-sized pyramidal cells, while area 7 contains a cluster of widely dispersed small pyramidal cells. Typically, labeled cell bodies were found in lamina III of cortex. Labeled cell bodies were neither observed in the contralateral cortex nor in the visual cortex (areas 17, 18 and 19). Since parietal cortex receives projections from primary somatosensory and visual cortex, the projections from parietal to motor cortex may well form the neural substrate for the processing of convergent sensory information used in voluntary movements.