A subpopulation of primate corticocortical neurons is distinguished by somatodendritic distribution of neurofilament protein.

In recent immunohistochemical studies of human and monkey neocortex we observed that the somatodendritic distribution of neurofilament protein appears to be restricted to a subpopulation of pyramidal neurons. To further characterize this apparent specificity in cytoskeletal organization, combined retrograde tract tracing and immunohistochemical methods were used to examine the extent to which neurons from different cortical areas providing a projection to prefrontal cortex have a somatodendritic distribution of neurofilament proteins. These studies revealed that the proportion of neurons providing a projection from different cortical areas to prefrontal cortex varied from nearly 30% to 90%, and appeared to be related to the functional nature of the projection.