Abstract
Typically, anatomical connections have been traced by injecting pathway-tracing chemicals into restricted portions of the brain. After a few days, the brains are fixed and the transported chemicals identified in histological sections. Orthograde tracers move forward along axons from cell body to axon terminals and retrograde tracers move backwards along axons from terminals to parent cell body. The use of both types of tracers has revealed origins and terminations of pathways and a massively complex network of connections between numerous functionally and anatomically distinct cerebral cortical and subcortical regions. In the monkey visual system alone more than 300 connections have been described between the 32 visual cortical areas. Even so, in the network descriptions neither anatomical strengths nor functional impacts of individual connections are identified. Yet, there is no doubt that knowledge about both aspects of connectivity is essential for developing accurate descriptions of network operations. We describe a new combination of a metabolic mapping and a reversible deactivation technique in an animal model to assess the functional impact of cerebral connections.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $21.58 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Vanduffel, W., Orban, G., Lomber, S. et al. Functional impact of cerebral projection systems. Mol Psychiatry 3, 215–219 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.mp.4000358
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.mp.4000358