Distribution of cerebellar-induced responses in the cerebral cortex

Abstract

Distribution of responses in the cerebral cortex elicited by stimulation of cerebellar nuclei was investigated in cats lightly anesthetized with Nembutal. Stimulation of the interpositus nucleus produced more marked responses than that of the lateral nucleus but no distinguishable difference was noted between the localizations of responses in the cerebral cortex elicited by stimulating these nuclei. Medical nucleus stimulation set up little or no response in the cortex. Therefore, effects of stimulating the interpositus nucleus were mainly presented in this report. Cerebellar-evoked responses could be recorded from two regions in the cortex, frontal motor and parietal association areas; both were contralateral to the cerebellar nuclei stimulated. In the frontal cortex, the responses composed mainly of the deep thalamocortical (T-C) response were distributed in the exposed area of the anterior sigmoid gyrus, the deeply folded cruciate cortex, and a part of the exposed area of the posterior sigmoid gyrus. In the parietal cortex, the superficial T-C responses appeared in the middle suprasylvian cortex, a rostral part of the lateral gyrus, and its extension to the mesial cortex.