PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Victor Z. Han
AU  - Curtis C. Bell
TI  - Physiology of Cells in the Central Lobes of the Mormyrid Cerebellum
AID  - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.23-35-11147.2003
DP  - 2003 Dec 03
TA  - The Journal of Neuroscience
PG  - 11147--11157
VI  - 23
IP  - 35
4099  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/23/35/11147.short
4100  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/23/35/11147.full
SO  - J. Neurosci.2003 Dec 03; 23
AB  - The cerebellum of mormyrid electric fish is unusual for its size and for the regularity of its histology. The circuitry of the mormyrid cerebellum is also different from that of the mammalian cerebellum in that mormyrid Purkinje cell axons terminate locally within the cortex on efferent cells, and the cellular regions of termination for climbing fibers and parallel fibers are well separated. These and other features suggest that the mormyrid cerebellum may be a useful site for addressing some functional issues regarding cerebellar circuitry. We have therefore begun to examine the physiology of the mormyrid cerebellum by recording intracellularly from morphologically identified Purkinje cells, efferent cells, Golgi cells, and stellate cells in in vitro slices. Mormyrid Purkinje cells respond to parallel fiber input with an AMPA-mediated EPSP that shows paired pulse facilitation and to climbing fiber input with a large all-or-none AMPA-mediated EPSP that shows paired pulse depression. Recordings from the somas of Purkinje cells show three types of spikes in response to injected current: a small, narrow sodium spike; a large, broad sodium spike; and a large broad calcium spike. Efferent cells, Golgi cells, and stellate cells respond to parallel fiber input with an EPSP or EPSP-IPSP sequence and show only large, narrow spikes in response to intracellular current injection. We conclude that the physiology of the mormyrid cerebellum is similar in many ways to the mammalian cerebellum but is also different in ways that may prove instructive concerning the functional circuitry of the cerebellum.