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The Journal of Neuroscience, June 15, 2005, 25(24):5680-5690; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0558-05.2005

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Pontine Maps Linking Somatosensory and Cerebellar Cortices Are in Register with Climbing Fiber Somatotopy

Francis Odeh,^1 * Rochelle Ackerley,^2 * Jan G. Bjaalie,¹ and Richard Apps²

¹Neural Systems and Graphics Computing Laboratory, Centre for Molecular Biology and Neuroscience, and Department of Anatomy, University of Oslo, N-0317 Oslo, Norway, and ²Department of Physiology, School of Medical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TD, United Kingdom

The cerebropontocerebellar mossy fiber system is a major CNS sensorimotor pathway. We used a double-retrograde axonal tracing technique (red and green beads) to chart in rats the pontocerebellar projection to different electrophysiologically defined climbing fiber zones in the posterior lobe (face-receiving A2 zone and forelimb- and hindlimb-receiving parts of the C1 zone in the paramedian lobule and copula pyramidis, respectively). Individual cortical injection sites were verified as located in a given zone by mapping the pattern of cell labeling in the inferior olive, whereas labeled cells in the pontine nuclei were mapped using computer-aided three-dimensional reconstruction techniques. A number of topographical differences were found for the pontine projection to the individual zones. Projections to the A2 zone were bilateral, whereas to both parts of the C1 zone, the inputs were mainly contralateral. Furthermore, the A2 (face), C1 (forelimb), and C1 (hindlimb) zone projections were centered in progressively more caudal parts of the pontine nuclei with little or no overlap between them. The areas occupied by cell labeling for each zone corresponded closely to territories in the pontine nuclei shown previously to receive projections from somatotopically equivalent regions of the somatosensory cortex. This precise cerebropontocerebellar topography, defined by climbing fiber somatotopy, is a new principle of organization for linking somatosensory and cerebellar cortices. The convergence of direct and indirect sensory projections is likely to have important implications for cerebellar cortical processing.

Key words: cerebellum; inferior olive; pontine nuclei; cerebral cortex; primary somatosensory cortex; 3-D reconstruction; somatotopy

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Received Feb 10, 2005; revised April 5, 2005; accepted April 19, 2005.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				A. Pijpers, R. Apps, J. Pardoe, J. Voogd, and T. J. H. Ruigrok Precise Spatial Relationships between Mossy Fibers and Climbing Fibers in Rat Cerebellar Cortical Zones. J. Neurosci., November 15, 2006; 26(46): 12067 - 12080. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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