The role of the posterior cerebellar vermis in cardiovascular control

Abstract

The effects of electrical stimulation of the posterior cerebellar vermis in anaesthetized, decerebrate and conscious animals are described, and include marked changes in blood pressure and heart rate and an inhibition of the baroreceptor reflex. These effects appear to be restricted to lobule IX, and can be duplicated by chemical stimulation, indicating that they are a genuine cerebellar phenomenon. The results of both neuroanatomical and neurophysiological experiments to investigate the pathways responsible for the effects are described, and these show there to be a direct projection of Purkinje cell axons to the parabrachial nucleus. Experiments designed to test a possible involvement of lobule IX in the alerting response have proved negative, and while lobule IX itself appears to have no role in conditioned cardiovascular responses, lesions of lobules VI and VII do result in a significant impairment of the acquisition of conditioned bradycardia in the rabbit.