I will describe a survey of a dozen-barred galaxies with evidence for circumnuclear structure. This study has been thought as the verification of the hypothesis that the structure and dynamics of the large- scale disc of the host galaxies is intimately connected with that of the inner, active region (either AGN or SF), and that the large-scale structure determines the occurrence and appearance of circumnuclear star-forming regions and nuclear activity.

To tackle the questions that motivated our study, we required NIR (J, H and K) imaging with the CFHT, along with HST NICMOS of the cores of the galaxies, and optical B, I and H alpha imaging of the discs of their host galaxies. I will present the images, color index maps, and sets of radial profiles from an ellipse fitting analysis for all galaxies.

With our data set, we were in a good position to check theoretically predicted correlation’s, e.g. between bar ellipticity (`strength') and degree of curvature of the bar dust lanes. We found, however, that this correlation does not exist in reality, and that only the extremes of it hold.

Various other interesting correlation’s found between global galaxy and CNR parameters will be covered in this talk as well as suggestions for future research in this subject.