POSSIBLE USE-DEPENDENT CHANGES IN ADULT PRIMATE SOMATOSENSORY CORTEX

Topographic changes in adult primate somatosensory cortical maps have been reported to follow well-regulated manipulations in the animals' e xperience. We report briefly here cortical mapping data from one monke y which arrived at our laboratory with a chronic paralytic condition i n one hand that resulted in a unique pattern of skin surface stimulati on. Isolated receptive fields across the mediolateral extent of cortic al area 3b were highly unusual with respect to normal topography, but they were completely consistent with the hypothesis that the correlate d activation of peripheral afferents acts to shape expressed cortical receptive fields.