Somatotopic organization of the second somatosensory area (SII) in the cerebral cortex of the mouse.

The somatotopic organization of the parietal cortex of barbiturate-anesthetized, adult mice was studied using tungsten microelectrodes. A complete representation of the contralateral face and body occupying approximately 4.0-4.5 mm2 was found immediately posterior and lateral to the representation of the face in the first somatosensory area (SI). Within this second somatosensory area (SII), the following findings were made: A relatively large region is devoted to representations of the paws and face, especially the sinus hairs associated with the anterior upper lip and mystacial vibrissae. Receptive fields on these body regions are among the smallest found in SII, though larger than corresponding receptive fields in SI. In particular, vibrissae receptive fields always include at least several adjacent whiskers, and paw receptive fields always include at least two adjacent digits. In regions representing proximal body parts, receptive fields are considerably larger, may include both contralateral and ipsilateral limb or trunk surfaces, and sometimes include the entire body and face. Responses to both somatosensory and auditory stimulation were consistently found in the body (i.e., trunk and limb) representation, but rarely found in the face region. The face is represented most anteriorly, and the hindlimb and tail most posteriorly. Forepaw and hindpaw digits and anterior aspects of the face (e.g., perioral sinus hairs and the incisors) are represented laterally, while the back, caudal head, and mystacial vibrissae are represented medially. Within SII, therefore, a "musculus" can be viewed as having an upright body orientation with the face area bordering the face representation within SI. By comparison with SI, SII is characterized by a less pronounced layer IV, which is of irregular thickness and packing density, and by less uniformity in the layering of pyramidal cells in lamina V. In addition, SII is generally thicker from pia to white matter than SI. These results are in general accord with earlier findings from evoked potential studies in mice, but are at variance with recent reports in mice and rats that the mystacial vibrissae have only a minimal, or no, representation within SII. Indeed, the present findings suggest that the representation of the whiskers in SII may have a specialized function paralleling that in SI.