Polyphasic potentials were picked up from the claustrum by stimulation of mixed, cutaneous or muscular somatic nerves in anaesthetized paralysed cats. Single shock stimulation of different nerves of the four limbs showed that a spatial and modal convergence of somatic afferences occurs at the level of the claustrum. Somatic afferences to the claustrum are conveyed by fibres of the posterior spinal funiculi and the dorsal part of lateral funiculi. The complex polyphasic responses of the claustrum to somatic stimulation were not affected by cauterization of suprasylvian cortex and somatic cortical areas I and II of the two hemispheres. Electrical stimulation of specific thalamic nuclei evoked in the claustrum responses with time limits compatible with a spinothalamic claustral course of somatic afferences.