The soma distribution of thalamic neurons projecting to a small circumscribed zone (diameter = 0.5-1.0 mm) strictly within cortical area 3a (in region of hand representation) filled out a "territory" traversing the dorsal half of the cytoarchitectonically defined thalamic nucleus, VPLc (abbreviations as in Olszewski [ 1952] The Thalamus of the Macaca mulatta. 
The responses of cortical neurons evoked by cutaneous stimulation were investigated in the hand representation of cortical area 3a in adult owl monkeys that had been trained in a tactile frequency discrimination task. This study demonstrates that there is a reorganization of the cutaneous and "deep" representation of hand in cortical area 3a, with the main change being an emergence of a large cutaneous representation and the parallel disappearance of a large part of the normal deep representation in this field. These changes are discussed in light of the possible functional roles of cortical area 3a..
These findings suggest that muscle afferent information, thought to be important in a closed-loop mode of function, may reach primary motor cortex directly from cortical area 3a..
The distributions of thalamic neurons projecting to the motor cortex and cortical area 3a were studied in cat by means of the retrograde double-labeling technique using Nuclear Yellow (NY) and Fast Blue (FB) as tracers.
Neurons were recorded within forelimb and vestibular projection regions of cortical area 3a.
For comparison, neurones of the primary receiving area for low-threshold muscle afferents, cortical area 3a, were also included in this study.
Experiments in anaesthetized monkeys revealed that signals from stretch afferents reach neurons of the motor cortex, possibly via a relay in the cortical area 3a.
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