Metabolic activity of intracerebellar nuclei in the rat: effects of inferior olive inactivation.

Metabolic activity of the intracerebellar nuclei during cryoinactivation of the inferior olive was studied in the anaesthetized rat by using the 14C-2-deoxyglucose method. Single unit recording of Purkinje cells was simultaneously monitored in the cerebellar cortex. Local inactivation in the inferior olive resulted in regional suppression of complex spike discharges in the cerebellar cortex. An increased metabolic activity was observed in the cerebellar nuclei contralateral to the cryoinactivation site correlating the somatotopically arranged olivo-cerebello-nuclear circuit. This increase was shown to be due specifically to inactivation of the inferior olive, since it was not obtained in a rat in which the inferior olive was previously destroyed by neurotoxic doses of 3-acetylpyridine. The results are interpreted as being due to an increased presynaptic activity of the terminals of the Purkinje cells which fire simple spikes at high rates after climbing fibre deafferentation.