Purkinje cells

Located in

Purkinje layer of cerebellar cortex

and vestibulocerebellum

anywhere else???

Input from

fan-like dendritic arborization (extend into molecular cell layer)

a single one of the climbing fibers - v powerful excitatory effect -> complex spike

parallel fibers -> simple spike

requires spatial and temporal summation of inputs from several parallel fibers before firing

same for cerebellar mossy fibers???

a million granule cells

inhibited by

stellate cells

basket cells

Golgi cells

Send to

inhibitory

project topographically to deep cerebellar nuclei

underlying white matter

vestibular nuclei

Mechanism

large cell bodies

Purkinje cells ' dendritic arborizations extend upward into molecular layer

Simple spike

steady stream in response to spontaneous activity in cerebellar mossy fibers

up to 100 spikes/second

frequency

represents magnitude and duration of peripheral stimuli or centrally generated behaviors

e.g. somatosensory, vestibular

also driven by voluntary eye or limb movements

Unsorted

regulate how much

the cerebellar mossy fibers and climbing fibers activate the deep nuclei

the cerebellum influences the motor system

input from 100-200,000 parallel fibers

excitatory input from inferior olivary nucleus via a single climbing fiber

spiking

wikipedia says:

simple spikes - the parllel fibers are supposed to be responsible for the all-or-nothing amplitude-invariant spiking

complex spikes - excitatory postsynaptic response of Purkinje cells from climbing fibers are amplitude-invariant

primary integrative cerebellar cortex neurons

sole output of cerebellar cortex

large dendrites with hundreds of spiny branches into molecular layer

mostly all flat (lie in planes) with neighboring Purkinje arbors in parallel plns

each parallel fiber from the granule cells runs orthogonally