Skip to main content
Book cover

Neurobiology pp 301–308Cite as

The Functional Significance of Cerebellar Anatomy

Theory and Experiments

  • Chapter

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((NSSA,volume 289))

Abstract

The cortex of the cerebellum is made up by only a few different types of neurons which are arranged in a highly regular and geometrical way. Because of its unusual regularity the cerebellar cortex has attracted many theoreticians and experimentalists, and research on the cerebellum has now been done for more than a hundred years. As a result, the cerebellum is today in many respects one of the best described parts of the vertebrate brain. Its anatomical structure has been well known since the beginning of the century, electrophysiology started in the sixties (Eccles et al. 1967) and was continued since then with increasing intensity. In spite of that, however, we are not yet able to relate the anatomical structure and the neuronal activity of the cerebellum to what is widely considered its main function: the control of posture and movement.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • BOWER, J. M. & WOOLSTON, D. C. (1983). Congruence of Spatial Organization of Tactile Projections to Granule Cell and Purkinje Cell Layers of Cerebellar Hemispheres of the Albino Rat: Vertical Organization of Cerebellar Cortex. J. Neurophysiol. 49, 745–766.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • BRAITENBERG, V. (1961). Functional Interpretation of Cerebellar Histology. Nature 190, 539–540.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • BRAITENBERG, V. (1967). Is the Cerebellar Cortex a Biological Clock in the Millisecond Range? In Progress in Brain Research. Vol. 25. The Cerebellum, eds. FOX, C. A. & SNIDER, R. S. pp. 334–346. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • BRAITENBERG, V. (1976). Real Neural Networks. In Perspectives in Brain Research, eds. CORNER, M. A. & SWAAB, D. F. pp. 197–205. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • BRAITENBERG, V. (1978). Cortical Architectonics: General and Areal. In Architectonics of the Cerebral Cortex, 443–465. New York: Raven Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • BRAITENBERG, V. (1983). The cerebellum revisited. Journal of Theoretical Neurobiology 2, 237–241.

    Google Scholar 

  • BRAITENBERG, V. (1987). The cerebellum and the physics of movement: some speculations. In Cerebellum and neuronal plasticity, eds. GLICKSTEIN, M., YEO, C. & STEIN, J. pp. 193–207. New York: Plenum.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • BRAITENBERG, V. & ATWOOD, R. P. (1958). Morphological observations on the cerebellar cortex. J. Comp. Neurol. 109, 1–33.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • BRAITENBERG, V. & SCHÜZ, A. (1991). Anatomy of the Cortex. Statistics and Geometry. Berlin,Heidelberg, New York: Springer Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • ECCLES, J. C., LLINÁS, R. & SASAKI, K. (1966). The excitatory synaptic action of climbing fibres on the Purkinje cells of the cerebellum. J. Physiol. (Lond.) 182, 268–296.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • ECCLES, J. C., ITO, M. & SZENTÁGOTHAI, J. (1967). The Cerebellum as a Neuronal Machine. Berlin: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • EKEROT, C.-F. & OSCARSSON, O. (1981). Prolonged depolarization elicited in Purkinje cell dendrites by climbing fiber impulses in the cat. J. Physiol. (Lond.) 318, 207–221.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • GILBERT, P. F. C. (1975). How the cerebellum could memorize movements. Nature 254, 688–689.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • GRANIT, R. & PHILLIPS, C. G. (1956). Excitatory and inhibitory processes acting upon individual Purkinje cells of the cerebellum in cats. J. Physiol. (Lond.) 133, 520–547.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • HECK, D. (1993a). Rat cerebellar cortex in vitro responds specifically to moving stimuli. Neurosci. Lett. 157, 95–98.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • HECK, D. (1993b). Specific responses of the cerebellar cortex to moving stimuly. In Brain Theory: Spacio-Temporal Aspects of Brain Function, ed. AERTSEN, A. M. H. J. pp. 127–130. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • HECK, D. (1994). Making sense of parallel fibers: further experimental evidence for the interpretation of the cerebellum as a sequence addressable memory. Proceedings of the 22th Göttingen Neurobiology Conference 565 (Abstract)

    Google Scholar 

  • HECK, D. (1995a). Die Bedeutung raum-zeitlicher Dynamik für die Aktivität des Kleinhirnkortex und die Interpretation seiner Anatomie. Hamburg: Verlag Dr. Kovac.

    Google Scholar 

  • HECK, D. (1995b). Investigating dynamic aspects of brain function in slice preparations: Spatiotemporal stimulus patterns generated with an easy to build multi-electrode array. J. Neurosci. Methods 58, 81–87.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • HECK, D. (1995c). Sequential input to guinea pig cerebellar cortex in vitro strongly affects Purkinje cells via parallel fibers. Naturwissenschaften 82, 201–203.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • HECK, D. & BRAITENBERG, V (1993). Specific Responses of Rat Cerebellar Cortex to Moving Input: Dependence of Distance Covered by the Movement. Soci.Neurosci.Abstr. 19, 1589 (Abstract)

    Google Scholar 

  • HORE, J., WILD, B. & DIENER, H. C. (1991). Cerebellar dysmetria at the elbow, wrist and fingers. J. Neurophysiol. 65, 563–571.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • IVRY, R. (1993). Cerebellar involvement in the explicit representation of temporal information. Ann.NY Acad.Sci. 682, 214–230.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • LLINÁS, R., BLOEDEL, J. R. & HILLMAN, D. E. (1969). Functional characterization of neuronal circuitry of frog cerebellar cortex. J. Neurophysiol. 32, 847–870.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • LLINÁS, R. (1982). Radial Connectivity in the Cerebellar Cortex: A Novel View Regarding the Functional Organization of the Molecular Layer. In The Cerebellum, New Vistas, eds. PALAY, S. L. & CHAN-PALAY, V. pp. 189–192. New York: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • LLINÁS, R. & SUGIMORI, M. (1992). The Electrophysiology of the Cerebellar Purkinje Cell Revisited. In The Cerebellum Revisited, eds. LLINÁS, R. & SOTELO, C. pp. 167–181. New York: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • NAPPER, R. M. A. & HARVEY, R. J. (1988). Number of parallel fiber synapses on an individual Purkinje cell in the cerebellum of the rat. J. Comp. Neurol. 274, 168–177.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • RAMON Y, CAJAL, S. (1911). Histologie du système nerveux de l’homme et des vertébrés. Vol. II. Paris: A. Maloine.

    Google Scholar 

  • THACH, W. T. (1968). Discharge of cerebellar Purkinje and nuclear neurons during rapidly alternating arm movements in the monkey. J. Neurophysiol. 31, 785–797.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • THACH, W. T. (1970). Discharge of cerebellar neurons related to two maintained postures and two prompt movements. II. Purkinje cell output and input. J. Neurophysiol. 33, 537–547.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • TROMMALD, M., JENSEN, V & ANDERSEN, P. (1995). Analysis of dendritic spines in rat CA1 pyramidal cells intracellularly filled with a fluorescent dye. J. Comp.Neurol. 353, 260–274.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1996 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Heck, D.H. (1996). The Functional Significance of Cerebellar Anatomy. In: Torre, V., Conti, F. (eds) Neurobiology. NATO ASI Series, vol 289. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5899-6_24

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5899-6_24

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-7706-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-5899-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics