Is the cerebellum really uniform in architecture?
文摘
I will give an overview of some of my lab’s work on structure function relations of the cerebellum. Our anatomic pathway mapping studies have provided evidence in support of the modular hypothesis of cerebellar compartmentation in which individual cerebellar cortical regions are defined by their olivo-cortico-nuclear connectivity. Micromapping experiments have shown that this arrangement holds true at the microcircuit level of resolution and that both inferior olive climbing fiber and pontine mossy fiber inputs align with Purkinje cells with different molecular phenotype; namely expression of zebrin II. These and related findings have led us to investigate the possibility that the physiologic characteristics of Purkinje cells may not be uniform. In electrophysiologic investigations in rats we have found systematic variations in Purkinje cell spiking patterns which relate to zebrin expression. This implies that important differences in information encoding exist between cerebellar cortical regions, supporting the notion that the cerebellar cortex is not as uniform as commonly assumed.