title: Electrophysiological representation of scratching CpG activity in the cerebellum.
abstract: We analyzed the electrical activity of neuronal populations in the cerebellum and the lumbar spinal cord during fictive scratching in adult decerebrate cats before and after selective sections of the Spino-Reticulo Cerebellar Pathway (SRCP) and the Ventral-Spino Cerebellar Tract (VSCT). During fictive scratching, we found a conspicuous sinusoidal electrical activity, called Sinusoidal Cerebellar Potentials (SCPs), in the cerebellar vermis, which exhibited smaller amplitude in the paravermal and hemisphere cortices. There was also a significant spino-cerebellar coherence between these SCPs and the lumbar sinusoidal cord dorsum potentials (SCDPs). However, during spontaneous activity such spino-cerebellar coherence between spontaneous potentials recorded in the same regions decreased. We found that the section of the SRCP and the VSCT did not abolish the amplitude of the SCPs, suggesting that there are additional pathways conveying information from the spinal CPG to the cerebellum. This is the first evidence that the sinusoidal activity associated to the spinal CPG circuitry for scratching has a broad representation in the cerebellum beyond the sensory representation from hindlimbs previously described. Furthermore, the SCPs represent the global electrical activity of the spinal CPG for scratching in the cerebellar cortex.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Fisiología, Biofísica y Neurociencias CINVESTAV, México City, México.
authors.forename: Lourdes
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Martínez-Silva
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Fisiología, BUAP, Puebla, México.
authors.forename: Elias
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Manjarrez
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas - UNAM, México City, México.
authors.forename: Gabriel
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gutiérrez-Ospina
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Fisiología, Biofísica y Neurociencias CINVESTAV, México City, México.
authors.forename: Jorge N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Quevedo
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials; D000818:Animals; D002415:Cats; D063226:Central Pattern Generators / Q000502:physiology*; D002525:Cerebellar Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000502:physiology*; D066294:Commissural Interneurons / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D055724:Electrophysiological Phenomena; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity; D009434:Neural Pathways; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000502:physiology