PMID: 3772437Nov 1, 1986Paper

Quantitative correlation between barrel-field size and the sensory innervation of the whiskerpad: a comparative study in six strains of mice bred for different patterns of mystacial vibrissae

The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience
Egbert Welker, H Van der Loos

Abstract

In mice from 6 strains bred for different patterns of mystacial vibrissae, we studied the consequences of the presence of supernumerary whiskers for the sensory innervation of the vibrissal follicles and their cortical representation in the barrel field. The parameters were number of axons innervating individual vibrissal follicles, tangential area of individual barrels, and thickness of the layers in the barrel cortex. These parameters are highly constant for animals within a strain but may differ greatly between strains. For all strains, the innervation of a follicle depends on its position on the whiskerpad, the highest innervation density being at the posterolateral corner. This matches the wave of development that travels over this part of the face during embryogenesis. Although large differences exist between strains in the number of axons innervating the whiskerpad, the relative number of axons innervating the "standard" follicles of 1 row is remarkably constant. The thickness of the barrel cortex increases from posteromedial to anterolateral for all strains. This increase is due to variations in thickness of the cortical output layers (II and III, V and VI). For individual barrel-follicle pairs, we calculated the ratio ...Continue Reading

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