No klew what the result you envision here is...can you find an example that illustrates the effect you're after that you can attach so we can see it?
ADDENDUM
I bet you're looking for ZOOM excepting you'd like it to apply to only a subset range of the figure axes, right?
Unfortunately, Matlab doesn't support that feature; you'd have to "roll your own" to do so. I've never tried to simulate this; I suspect creating a second axes over a subset of the first would be about the only way and I also suspect this will get complicated to work as desired.
You might consider instead SUBPLOT and use it as an inset-like feature, maybe? Oh, that raises an interesting question--does the Mapping Toolbox support inset maps and can one make them act like a regular graph axes? I've never had the toolbox so no klew; just a stray thought that may be more work that option A) above if even possible...
