Learning through maps: Functional significance of topographic organizationin primary sensory cortex

The presence of "maps" in sensory cortex is a hallmark of the mammalian ner vous system, but the functional significance of topographic organization ha s been called into question by physiological studies claiming that patterns of neural behavioral activity transcend topographic boundaries. This paper discusses recent behavioral and physiological studies suggesting that, whe n animals or human subjects learn perceptual tasks, the neural modification s associated with the learning are distributed according to the spatial arr angement of the primary sensory cortical map. Topographical cortical repres entations of sensory events, therefore, appear to constitute a true structu ral framework for information processing and plasticity. (C) 1999 John Wile y & Sons, Inc.