Cortico-cortical mediation of short-latency (lemniscal) sensory input to the motor cortex in deeply pentobarbitone anaesthetized cats.

In pentobarbitone-anaesthetized cats, responses were recorded as surface positive potentials in the motor cortex on forelimb and brachium conjunctivum stimulation. In such a preparation, the forelimb nerve responses are mediated via the spino-cervical tract and the dorsal column-lemniscal pathway. Lesions of the sensory cortex (sparing only the depth of the coronary sulcus) abolished or reduced short-latency peripheral responses, in the motor cortex, on both skin and muscle nerve stimulation to less than 10% of control, while brachium conjunctivum responses were unchanged. Lesions of the second somatosensory area alone reduced the motor cortex responses on peripheral nerve stimulation by 10-20%. When the sensory cortex was inactivated by spreading depression, peripheral responses in the motor cortex were abolished before the spreading depression reached the recording point, as judged from the brachium conjunctivum response. The depth distribution of positive and negative field potentials, constituting the early components of a peripheral response in the motor cortex, closely resembled that of a cortico-cortical response evoked on stimulation in area 3. It differed from that of thalamo-cortical response evoked on brachium conjunctivum stimulation. These data suggest that most, if not all, sensory input through the dorsal column and spino-cervical tract to the motor cortex is mediated via the sensory cortex.