The form and distribution of the surface evoked responses in cerebellar cortex from intercostal nerves in the cat

1. The form and distribution of the cerebellar evoked responses to electrical stimulation of intercostal and other thoracic segmental nerves were investigated in anaesthetized cats.2. Low intensity stimulation (< 2 x nerve threshold) evoked short latency, low amplitude (< 20 muV), initially surface positive responses which could only be distinguished with certainty from the electrocorticogram with averaging.3. On the basis of experiments involving sectioning of afferent tracts it is concluded that intercostal evoked responses of less than 7.0 msec latency are conducted in dorsal spino-cerebellar, ventral spino-cerebellar and dorsal column (cuneo-cerebellar) pathways.4. The surface positive waves have a highly punctate distribution with a steep potential gradient extending over an area of about 1 mm diameter. It is postulated that these small fields represent activation of single or few mossy fibre inputs.5. Short latency responses to thoracic inputs were found only in the ipsilateral intermediate cortex and lateral margin of the vermis of the anterior lobe (lateral two thirds of Larsell's lobules IV and V of the accessible cortex). The responses were distributed throughout the fore and hind limb areas of the anterior lobe and no rostro-caudal or medio-lateral segmental organization was seen.6. It is suggested that the overlapping distribution of thoracic and fore and hind limb mossy fibre inputs within the cerebellar cortex provides an anatomical basis for the integration of information from the trunk and from the limbs.