Responses of pontocerebellar neurones to stimulation of the parietal association and the frontal motor cortices

Abstract

The corticopontine projections from the parietal association cortex (the anterior portion of the middle suprasylvian gyrus) were electrophysiologically investigated and compared with those from the frontal motor cortex (the anterior sigmoid gyrus) in cats under light Nembutal anaesthesia. It was indicated by field potential study that the pontine nucleus (PN) neurones receive a significant amount of the direct corticopontine fibres from both the parietal and frontal cortical areas. In extracellular unitary study, out of 107 PN neurones identified by antidromic activation due to the brachium pontis stimulation, 33 responded with firings to stimulation of the parietal association area and 64 to the frontal motor area. Only 10 of them were excited by both parietal and frontal stimulations, but they were not estimated to receive the dual monosynaptic projections from both cortical areas. There were found data suggesting that the pontocerebellar neurones with faster conduction velocities respond at shorter latencies to the cortical stimulation and those with slower conduction velocities fire at longer latencies on the cortical stimulation. No remarkable difference was observed between the topographical localization of the PN neurones receiving the projection fibres from the parietal association and the frontal motor cortical areas. It was concluded that a vast majority of the pontocerebellar neurones possibly receive monosynaptic contacts differentially with the corticopontine fibres originating from the parietal association and the frontal motor areas.