Climbing fibres projecting to cat cerebellar anterior lobe activated by cutaneous A and C fibres

• Published in: The Journal of physiology Vol. 386; no. 1; pp. 529 - 538
• Main Authors: Ekerot, C F, Gustavsson, P, Oscarsson, O, Schouenborg, J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford The Physiological Society 01-05-1987; Blackwell
• Subjects: Action Potentials; Animals; Basic Medicine; Biological and medical sciences; Cats; Cerebellum - physiology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Fysiologi; Medical and Health Sciences; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Medicinska och farmaceutiska grundvetenskaper; Nerve Fibers - physiology; Nerve Fibers, Myelinated - physiology; Physiology; Purkinje Cells - physiology; Radial Nerve - physiology; Skin - innervation; Somesthesis and somesthetic pathways (proprioception, exteroception, nociception); interoception; electrolocation. Sensory receptors; Time Factors; Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs; Cerebellum; Fissipedia; Carnivora; Vertebrata; Climbing fiber; Mammalia; Cat; Central nervous system; Brain (Vertebrata); Cutaneous sensitivity
• ISSN: 0022-3751; 1469-7793; 1469-7793
• DOI: 10.1113/jphysiol.1987.sp016549

1. Climbing fibre responses evoked on stimulation of the ipsilateral superficial radial nerve were examined in the forelimb
area of the C3 zone in the barbiturate-anaesthetized cat. Climbing fibre responses were recorded in sixty-five Purkinje cells
and as field potentials from the surface of the cerebellum. 2. In addition to the previously described A beta-fibre-evoked
climbing fibre response, late climbing fibre responses were consistently evoked in all Purkinje cells studied when C fibres
were stimulated. The latencies of the A beta- and C-fibre-evoked climbing fibre responses were 11-20 ms and 110-220 ms, respectively.
In most experiments climbing fibre responses with an intermediate latency (20-30 ms) were evoked. It was demonstrated that
this response depended on A delta fibres. 3. The long-latency climbing fibre response generated by electrical stimulation
at C-fibre strength was evoked also during selective anodal block of conduction in A fibres (Brown & Hamman, 1972). Hence,
impulses in C fibres were sufficient for generation of climbing fibre responses. 4. The distribution within the forelimb area
of the C3 zone of the A beta- and C-fibre-evoked climbing fibre field potential was similar. No climbing fibre response was
evoked in this area of the C3 zone by stimulation of A and C fibres in the contralateral superficial radial nerve or in the
plantar nerves of the hind limbs. 5. It can be concluded that climbing fibres projecting to the forelimb area of the C3 zone
in the cerebellum receive a somatotopically organized input from both A beta and C fibres.