[Neuronal barrels and the problem of somatotopy].

Serial frontal, sagittal paraffin sections from the brain areas 4, 3, 1 of the human neocortex were treated after Nissl, Klüver-Barrer, Cajal, Peters. Changes in qualitative-quantitative parameters of the neuronal ensembles and their systems in functionally different parts of the above mentioned cerebral fields were studied. It was demonstrated that the ensembles having the form of a truncated overturned cone or cylinder in the cortical space and surrounded with a vascular-fibrillar capsule were distributed according to changes of their qualitative-quantitative indices. A hypothetic scheme (Fig. 2) on distribution of the neuronal ensembles and their systems along the pre- and postcentral gyri is presented, that demonstrates a direct relation between the distribution of the neuronal ensembles differing in their structures and functional architecture of the fields in question of the human brain.