Neuroscience
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Projections to the basal ganglia from four auditory cortical fields in the cat were studied by combining microelectrode-mapping of the neurons' best frequencies with autoradiographic and histochemical tract-tracing techniques. Each auditory field is a source of projections to the homolateral basal ganglia. The distribution of labeling within the basal ganglia is related to the cortical field in which the injection site is located. ⋯ By comparison, two adjacent sheets of tissue were labeled when two injections were made into the low best-frequency and high best-frequency representations of the same auditory field. Double-injection, double-tracer experiments revealed that adjacent sheets of tissue received projections from different best-frequency loci. These observations suggested a degree of tonotopic organization to this projection system which was equipoise to the evidence obtained for a topographic organization.