Summary
Visual and somatosensory evoked potentials were mapped in the cerebral cortex of adult rats and, after filling the cerebral arteries and veins with dye, the mappings were then compared to the distribution of pial veins. A close relationship was found between the position, size and shape of the occipital venous drainage field and the distribution of visual evoked potentials with high amplitudes and short latencies. Accordingly, such potentials evoked by stimulation of the forepaw and the tailroot were confined to the fronto-parietal drainage field. In the case of individual variations in the expansion and shape of sensory areas, the medial and lateral borders of the occipital drainage field and the medial border of the fronto-parietal drainage field covaried. Only at the common border between these two drainage fields, visual evoked potentials with small amplitudes and long latencies extended into the parietal drainage field and overlapped with somatosensory evoked potentials. This overlapping area corresponds in position to the anterior part of the peristriate cortex. A comparison between the vascular organization and cytoarchitectonic maps of the rat cortex indicates that other parts of the characteristic pattern of venous drainage fields may also correlate with the cytoarchitectonic and functional organization of the cerebral cortex. These observations suggest that during morphogenesis the formation of sensory projections to the cerebral cortex may interact with the angiogenesis, mainly with the development of veins.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ambach G, Palkovits M (1974) Blood supply of the rat hypothalamus. I. Nucleus supraopticus. Acta Morph Acad Sci Hung 22: 291–310
Ambach G, Palkovits M (1979) The blood supply of the hypothalamus in the rat. In: PJ Morgane, J Panksepp (eds) Handbook of the hypothalamus, Vol I. Marcel Dekker Inc, New York Basel, pp 267–377
Adams AD, Forrester JM (1968) The projection of the rat's visual field on the cerebral cortex. Q J Exp Physiol 53: 327–336
Bardosi A, Ambach G (1985a) Constant position of the superficial cerebral veins of the rat. A quantitative analysis. Anat Rec 211: 338–341
Bardosi A, Ambach G (1985b) The angiogenesis of micrencephalic brains caused by methylazoxy methanol acetate. I Superficial venous system. A quantitative analysis. Acta Neuropath. 66: 253–263
Bär TH (1980) The vascular system of the cerebral cortex. In: Advances in anatomy, embryology and cell biology, Vol 59. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York
Clara M (1951) Das Nervensystem des Menschen. Barth, Leipzig, 3rd edn
Cusick CG, Lund RD (1981) The distribution of callosal projection to the occipital visual cortex in rats and mice. Brain Res 214: 239–259
Duvernoy HM, Delon S, Vannson JL (1981) Cortical blood vessels of the human brain. Brain Res Bull 7: 519–579
Eins S, Lessmann J, Wolff JR (1983) Growth of rat cerebral cortex: a morphometric study of radial blood vessels. Acta Stereol 2/ Suppl I: 149–154
Eulner S (1980) Beziehungen zwischen Wachstum und Vaskularisation der Großhirnrinde. Eine morphometrische Studie an der Albinoratte. Med Thesis Univ of Göttingen, FRG
Greenberg J, Hand PJ, Sylvestro A, Reivich M (1979) (14C)-iodantipyrine utilization and cerebral blood flow in the rat barrel field. In: Gotoh F, Nagai H, Tazaki Y (eds) Munksgaard, Copenhagen
Greene ECh (1935) Anatomy of the rat, Vol 27. Trans Am Philos Soc Haddon Craftsmen Inc, Camden New Jersey
Hall R, Lindholm EP (1974) Organization of motor and somatosensory neocortex in the albino rat. Brain Res 66: 23–38
Hebel R, Stromberg MW (1976) Anatomy of the laboratory rat. Williams and Wilkins Company, Baltimore
Krieg WJS (1946a) Connections of the cerebral cortex. I. Thealbino rat. A topography of the cortical areas. J Comp Neurol 84: 221–275
Krieg WJS (1946b) Accurate placement of minute lesions in the brain of the albino rat. Q Bull Northwest Univ Med School 20: 199–208
Kuhlenbeck H (1973) The central nervous system of vertebrates, Vol 3, Part II. Karger, Basel
Lazorthes G, Espano J, Lazorthes Y, Zadeh JO (1968) The vascular architecture of the cortex and the cortical blood flow. Prog Brain Res 30: 27–32
Lazorthes G, Gouaze A, Salamon G (1976) Vascularisation et circulation de L'Encephale, Vol I. Masson, Paris
Le Messurier DH (1948) Auditory and visual areas of the cerebral cortex of the rat. Fed Proc 7: 70–71
Merksz M, Ambach G, Palkovits M (1978) Blood supply of the rat amygdala. Acta Morph Acad Sci Hung 26: 139–171
Montero VM, Rojas A, Torrealba F (1973) Retinotopic organization of striate and peristriate visual cortex in the albino rat. Brain Res 53: 197–201
Patel U (1983) Non-random distribution of blood vessels in the posterior region of the rat somatosensory cortex. Brain Res 289: 65–70
Pfeiffer RA (1928) Grundlegende Untersuchungen für die Angioarchitektonik des menschlichen Gehirns. Springer, Berlin
Reivich M (1974) Blood flow metabolism couple in brain. Res Publ Assoc Nerv Ment Dis 53: 125–140
Welker C (1971) Microelectrode delineation of fine grain somatopic organization of SM I cerebral neocortex in albino rat. Brain Res 26: 259–275
Wolff JR (1976) An ontogenetically defined angioarchitecture of the neocortex. Arzneimittel-Forsch 26: 1239–1247
Wolff JR (1978) Ontogenetic aspects of cortical architecture: lamination. In: Brazier M, Petsche H (eds) Architectonics of the cerebral cortex. Raven Press, New York, pp 159–173
Woolsey CN, Le Messurier DH (1948) The pattern of cutaneus representation in the rat's cerebral cortex. Fed Proc 7: 137–138
Zeman W, Innes JRM (1963) Craigie's neuroanatomy of the rat. Acad Press, New York London
Zilles K, Wree A, Schleicher A, Divac I (1984) The monocular and binocular subfields of the rat's primary visual cortex: a quantitative morphological approach. J Comp Neurol 226: 391–402
Zilles K, Wree A (1985) Areal and laminar structure of the rat cortex. In: Paxinos G (ed) The rat nervous system, Vol I. Forebrain and midbrain. Academic Press, Sydney
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ambach, G., Toldi, J., Fehér, O. et al. Spatial correlation between sensory regions and the drainage fields of pial veins in rat cerebral cortex. Exp Brain Res 61, 540–548 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00237579
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00237579