Inhibitory control of intracerebellar nuclei by the purkinje cell axons.

Abstract

In anaesthetized cats, synaptic events in cerebellar nuclei neurones were investigated with intracellular microelectrode techniques. These cells were identified by their antidromic activation along their axons and/or by their location in histological sections. In the cells of lateral nucleus IPSPs were induced monosynaptically during stimulation of the overlying hemispheral cortex of the cerebellum. In the cells of nuclei interpositus and fastigii, similar IPSPs were produced from the paravermal and vermal cortices, respectively. The postulate that the Purkinje cells exert an inhibitory action upon their target neurones thus applies not only to Deiters neurones, as previously proposed, but also to cells in the cerebellar nuclei. Stimulation of the cerebellar afferents at the inferior olive, the pontine nucleus and the lateral reticular nucleus produced EPSPs in cerebellar nuclei cells with relatively brief latencies, probably through axon collaterals of these afferents. The EPSPs were followed by IPSPs and slow depolarizations of disinhibitory nature, which, as studied previously in Deiters neurones, might be caused respectively by activation and subsequent depression of Purkinje cells through the cerebellar intracortical mechanisms.