Organization of climbing fiber input from mechanoreceptors to lobule V vermal cortex of the cat.

The somatotopic organization of the climbing fiber (CF) projections to the vermal cortex of lobule V of the cat was revealed by low threshold natural stimulation of mechanoreceptors. Extracellular single-unit recordings were made from 554 Purkinje cells in cats anesthetized with sodium pentobarbital. Forty-nine percent of the CF responses were elicited by cutaneous stimulation of the forelimb (62%), hindlimb (25%), or upper back and neck (13%). The topographical arrangement consisted of a 1 mm wide medial zone and a 1-1.5 mm wide lateral zone. In the medial zone, the CF responses were mainly nonresponsive to any cutaneous stimulation except in the caudomedial portion of the lobule where the upper back, neck or ears were represented in a narrow parasagittally oriented strip. The lateral zone contained a mixture of CF responses representing projections from different portions of the ipsilateral forelimb and hindlimb. Although CF responses connected with the forepaw or hindpaw predominated throughout all parts of the lateral zone, the more medial portions of this zone contained larger receptive fields involving the more proximal areas of the limb whereas the lateral part of the zone had smaller receptive fields representing the distal regions, particularly the ventral forepaw surface. Cells with similar receptive fields were often grouped together, but adjacent skin areas were not necessarily represented in adjacent cortical patches. Thus, the cutaneous projections to this lobule terminated in a patchy or mosaic fashion.