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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Oct 28.
Published in final edited form as: Cell. 2011 Oct 28;147(3):653–665. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2011.10.012

Figure 1. Motor neuron columelar organization.

Figure 1

A. Motor columels in cat lumbar spinal cord. Color code: dark blue/ proximal hip (PH), gray/ iliopsoas (IP), light green/adductors (A), pink/quadriceps (Q), orange/ hamstring (H), red/anterior crural (AC), dark green/posterior crural (PC), purple/ foot (F). Lumbar (L) and sacral (S) segmental levels are indicated. Derived from data in Vanderhorst and Holstege (1997).

B. The proximodistal organization of muscles in cat hindlimb.

C. The dorsoventral (DV, μm) position of motor pools in cat lumbar spinal cord and the proximodistal (PD, cm) position of muscles in cat hindlimb. Color code as in A. Colored fields represent columelar/synergy groups, and individual points mark specific motor pools and limb muscles. Muscle and motor neuron key provided in supplementary text. Motor pool position from Vanderhorst and Holstege (1997), muscle position from Burkholder and Nichols (2004).

D. Columelar organization along the dorsoventral axis, after rostrocaudal compression into 2-dimensions. Columels are assigned to dorsoventral tiers that correspond to muscles at individual joints. The approximate position of relevant motor pools within columelar groups is marked.