1. Intradendritic recordings from Purkinje cells in vitro indicate that white matter stimulation produces large synaptic responses by the activation of the climbing fibre afferent, but antidromic potentials do not actively invade the dendritic tree. 2. Climbing fibre responses may be reversed in a manner similar to that observed at the somatic level. However, the reversal does not show the biphasicity often seen at somatic level. 3. Input resistance of these dendrites was found to range from 15 to 30 M omega. The non-linear properties seen at the somatic level for depolarizing currents are also encountered here. However, there seems to be less anomalous rectification. 4. Detailed analysis of repetitive firing of Purkinje cells elicited by outward DC current shows that, as in the case of the antidromic invasion, the fast somatic potentials (s.s.) do not invade the dendrite actively. However, the dendritic spike bursts (d.s.b.s) interposed between the s.s. potentials are most prominent at dendritic level. 5. Two types of voltage-dependent Ca responses were observed. At low stimulus level a plateau-like depolarization is accompanied by a prominent conductance change; further depolarization produces large dendritic action potentials. These two classes of response are TTX-resistant but are blocked by Cd, Co, Mn or D600, or by the removal of extracellular Ca. 6. Following blockage of the Ca conductance, plateau potentials produced by a non-inactivating Na conductance are observed mainly near the soma indicating that this voltage-dependent conductance is probably associated with the somatic membrane. 7. Spontaneous firing in Purkinje cell dendrites is very similar to that observed at the soma. However, the amplitude of these bursts is larger at dendritic level. It is further concluded that these TTX-insensitive spikes are generated at multiple sites along the dendritic tree. 8. Six ionic conductances seem to be involved in Purkinje cell electroresponsiveness: (a) an inactivating and (b) a non-inactivating Na conductance at or near the soma, (c) a spike- and (d) a plateau-generating Ca conductance, and (e) voltage-dependent and (f) Ca-dependent K currents. 9. The possible role of these conductances in Purkinje cell integration is discussed.

https://physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1113/jphysiol.1980.sp013357

Electrophysiological properties of in vitro purkinje cell dendrites in mammalian cerebellar slices

Publisher Summary This chapter provides an overview of the principal features of perikaryal responses to axon injury. The neuron is an unusual cell. Its axon terminals may be situated at what in cellular terms is an enormous distance from the cell body (perikaryon); the volume of the latter may be but a small fraction of the total cellular volume. Yet the neuronal processes are maintained and their substance is constantly renewed from the perikaryon. The separation of an axon from its cell body results (in vertebrates) in the degeneration of the separated portion and is followed by a series of morphological changes in the perikarya. The most conspicuous of these is the disintegration, redistribution, and apparent disappearance from the cell body of cytoplasmic basophil material. Changes in axotomized neurons are generally assessed by comparison with the corresponding contralateral neurons of the experimental animal.

The Axon Reaction: A Review of the Principal Features of Perikaryal Responses to Axon Injury

The thalamus as a neuronal oscillator.

Neural plasticity after peripheral nerve injury and regeneration.

Antidromic activation of neurones as an analytic tool in the study of the central nervous system

https://physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1113/jphysiol.1958.sp006041

R. R. Young

Papers

The behaviour of chromatolysed motoneurones studied by intracellular recording.