[Reaction of cerebellar Purkinje cells to mechanical stimulation of the Achilles tendon].

Responses of the cerebellar Purkinje cells to the mechanical stimulation of the Achilles tendon were investigated in experiments on unanaesthetized decerebrated cats. It is shown that in about 2/3 of the registered Purkinje cells the responses to mechanical stimulation of the Achilles tendon were activated by climbing fibre input, i. e. they generated a complex spike. In about a half of these cells (group "A") the probability of the climbing fibres responses was high (0.5-0.9) and the latency of the response was short (20-25 ms). The climbing fibres responses with latency above 35 ms and low probability (less than 0.5) were attributed to cells to group "B". The Purkinje cell responses evoked by the mossy fibre stimulation were more variable in pattern and more weakly expressed than the climbing fibres ones.