The responses of simultaneously recorded Purkinje cells to the perturbations of the step cycle in the walking ferret: a study using a new analytical method--the real-time postsynaptic response (RTPR).
Experiments were performed in ambulating decerebrate ferrets to examine the activity of up to 6 simultaneously recorded Purkinje cells oriented sagittally during unperturbed and perturbed locomotion using a new analytical technique, the real-time postsynaptic response (RTPR), which permits a trial-by-trial assessment of the action of the recorded neurons on a simulated cerebellar nuclear cell. The data illustrate that the responsiveness of the Purkinje cells located in a specific region of lobules V and VI is most dramatically modulated by the perturbations of the locomotor cycle and that this responsiveness in the perturbed trials is related to the degree of synchrony of the activated climbing fiber inputs to the cells of the set. The data were interpreted as supporting the gain change hypothesis of climbing fiber function.
D000818:Animals; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002335:Carnivora / Q000502:physiology*; D003655:Decerebrate State / Q000503:physiopathology; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D005289:Ferrets / Q000502:physiology*; D008124:Locomotion; D011689:Purkinje Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D013569:Synapses / Q000502:physiology; D009435:Synaptic Transmission