Cerebellar cortical efferents of the posterior lobe vermis in a prosimian primate (Galago) and the tree shrew (Tupaia).

The topographical organization of cerebellar cortical efferents of the posterior lobe vermis was studied in a prosimian primate (Galago senegalensis) and the tree shrew (Tupaia glis). Two patterns emerge; one which shows longitudinal zones of the entire vermis and a second which shows that induvidual lobules within the overall longitudinal pattern terminate in specific areas of the ipsilateral medial cerebellar nucleus (NM) and vestibular complix. The posterior lobe vermis consists of a narrow midline portion which projects bilaterally into the NM and a paramidline zone which projects only into the ipsilateral NM. These two zones are probably comparable to, and subdivisions of, Zone A of Voogd ('69). The lateral vermal zone projects primarily into the ipsilateral vestibular complex and/or interposed nuclei and appears to correspond to Zone B of Voogd ('69). Within this overall pattern individual lobules project into specific portions of the NM. From rostral to caudal (lobules VI to IX) terminal fields in the NM shift from dorsal and dorsomedial to ventral and ventrolatera. This is the inverse of the pattern of termination seen in the vestibular complex from lesions of the same lobules where from rostral to caudal (VI to IX) there are overlapping terminal fields from lateral to medial. With the exception of the narrow midline zone cerebellar corticonuclear projections of the posterior lobe vermis are ipsilateral. There is a more complex and more precise relationship between the posterior lobe vermis, NM and vestibular complex than previously suggested.