Cerebellar targets of visual pontine cells in the cat

Abstract

The cerebellum receives visual mossy fiber input from the cerebral cortex via visual cells in the pons. We identified the regions of cat cerebellum that receive cerebral visual input by injecting orthograde tracers among physiologically identified visual pontine cells. Cerebellar labeling following these injections indicates that the contralateral paraflocculus and the rostral folium of the uvula (vermal lobule IX) receive the heaviest projection from cortically activated pontine visual cells. Lighter visual input reaches much of the rest of the contralateral posterior lobe. A second experiment combined, in the same animal, orthograde tracing of the visual corticopontine pathway with retrograde tracing of the pontocerebellar projection. The results of this experiment confirm that the paraflocculus and uvula receive more cortical visual input than do other regions of the cerebellum. This experiment also shows that uvula-projecting and paraflocculus-projecting cells occupy different parts of the ventromedial pons. Uvula-projecting cells cluster immediately adjacent to the ventral and medial borders of the pyramidal tract and near the midline. Paraflocculus-projecting cells lie ventral and medial to the pyramidal tract but displaced from its border. There are few paraflocculus-projecting cells near the midline.