Summary
The preceding two papers gave accounts of mossy fiber (MF) or of climbing fiber (CF) inputs to Purkyně cells under conditions where the other input was depressed by the experimental procedure. By utilizing either chloralose anesthesia or decerebration with sparing of the pyramidal tracts it has been possible to study the convergence of MF and CF inputs onto single Purkyně cells. The stimulation of cutaneous mechanoreceptors, the recording procedures for unitary Purkyně cell discharges and the computer averaging techniques were as previously described.
Testing by taps to the footpads evoked a combined MF and CF response more commonly than either response alone, and often both inputs were very effective. There was a tendency for such phasic CF responses to be more frequently observed than the tonic responses to pad pressure, but such responses did occur.
Purkyně cells were located by the usual procedure along the microelectrode tracks later identified in serial sections. Those cells activated by the fast MF inputs from the pad receptors were found to be closely associated in groups or colonies. The delayed MF inputs probably via spino-reticular pathways were more widely dispersed. The topographical relationships of these colonies are displayed on maps of the unfolded cerebellar cortex for lobules II to VI of both vermis and pars intermedia. In general these distributions of Purkyně cells activated from forefoot and hindfoot appear as islands in the larger fields that degeneration procedures exhibit for the cuneocerebellar and dorsal spinocerebellar tracts respectively. The CF inputs from the footpads also project to these same colonies, so that there are conjoint MF and CF colonies.
The several modalities of the cutaneous mechanoreceptors of the forefoot or hindfoot often participate in the receptive fields of individual Purkyně cells. Such a field may be restricted to one or other side of the foot, all tested cutaneous mechanoreceptors then sharing approximately in the same restriction. Finally it is shown how these experimental findings relate to the theories of cerebellar function, particularly to the dynamic loop hypothesis.
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Eccles, J.C., Sabah, N.H., Schmidt, R.F. et al. Integration by Purkyně cells of mossy and climbing fiber inputs from cutaneous mechanoreceptors. Exp Brain Res 15, 498–520 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00236405
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00236405