Nature of the cerebellar influences upon the red nucleus neurones.

Abstract

Large cells in the red nucleus of cats were impaled with glass microelectrodes. Under light Nembutal anesthesia it was found that stimulation of the cerebellar cortex produced hyperpolarization in their membrane. Unlike the inhibitory postsynaptic potentials, this hyperpolarization decreased when the membrane was depolarized by passage of currents through the microelectrode, and it increased during application of hyperpolarizing currents: Hence the hyperpolarization is presumed to be produced by removal of tonically impinging excitatory postsynaptic potentials, in the manner of “disfacilitation”. In accordance with the above view, spontaneously arising small EPSPs disappeared during the phase of the hyperpolarization. The source of tonic impingement of excitatory impulses onto the red nucleus was found in the interpositus nucleus. The cells in this nucleus were discharging impulses at frequencies of 50–100/sec which were suppressed after the cerebellar stimulation, presumably via Purkinje cell axons, a depression in the excitability of the interpositus neurones being revealed at the same time. Following the depression, the excitability and impulse discharges of the interpositus neurones were enhanced, and correspondingly there was a late depolarization in the red nucleus neurones. During stimulation of the inferior olive and even of the spinal cord, disfacilitation and late facilitation occurred similarly through the interpositus nucleus, though with longer latencies.