Discharges of intracerebellar nuclear cells in monkeys

1. Conscious monkeys were trained with food rewards to perform movement tasks with the left forelimb and to accept manipulation of the joints and muscles and natural non-noxious stimulation of the skin of all four limbs. 2. Recordings were made from 217 cells situated in the left interpositus and dentate nuclei of the cerebellum. The identity of seventy-seven cells as cerebellar projection neurones was definitively established by activating them antidromically from the brachium conjunctivum near the contralateral red nucleus. 3. Modulation in the natural activity of 129 of these crebellar nuclear cells (sixty in interpositus; sixty-nine in dentate) occurred in a reproducible manner in temporal association with a phase of the self-paced movement tasks performed by the animal using the ipsilateral arm and hand. The discharges during motor performance of forty-two dentate and forty-five interpositus cells were shown to be associated with movement about a particular joint or region of the forelimb whenever that movement occurred. 4. Cells whose discharges were related to proximal joint movements (shoulder, elbow) and cells related to distal joint movements (wrist, fingers) were encountered in both the dentate and interposed nuclei. 5. The cells were tonically active at rest. Most commonly, accelerations in the discharge were related to movement of a joint or the limb in one direction and a reduction or cessation of activity accompanied movement in the opposite direction. 6. For some cells, variation of the amount of discharge demonstrated during movement performance could be related to the range of the movement or its duration, more activity being characteristic of more prolonged movement performance through larger angles of joint displacement. 7. The dentate and interpositus cells whose discharges were most strongly and consistently related to movements of the forelimb were concentrated in the mid region and caudal half of either nucleus. 8. None of seventy-three dentate neurones examined showed appreciable responses to stimulation of the skin or manipulation of joints and muscles of the fore- or hind limbs and only two cells responded to unexpected perturbation of movement performance. 9. No influence resulting from peripheral afferent input from the ipsilateral forelimb was detected in any interpositus cell whose firing was unchanged during ipsilateral arm movements. 10. Of the sixty interpositus cells whose discharge rates changed during motor performance, twenty-eight were demonstrated to be in receipt of input from receptors in the ipsilateral hand or arm, which could be activated by brisk tapping of the skin and sometimes by gentle squeezing of the forearm. 11. In the passive relaxed animal, manipulation of joints was ineffective in modifying the discharges of most interpositus neurones and, in all cases, prolonged pressure upon the skin elicited only transient responses...