Kitazawa S, Kimura T, Yin P B
Information Science Division, Electrotechnical Laboratory, Japan Science and Technology Corporation, Tsukuba.
Nature. 1998 Apr 2;392(6675):494-7. doi: 10.1038/33141.
Purkinje cells of the cerebellum discharge complex spikes, named after the complexity of their waveforms, with a frequency of approximately 1 Hz during arm movements. Despite the low frequency of firing, complex spikes have been proposed to contribute to the initiation of arm movements or to the gradual improvement of motor skills. Here we recorded the activity of Purkinje cells from the hemisphere of cerebellar lobules IV-VI while trained monkeys made short-lasting reaching movements (of approximately 200 milliseconds in duration) to touch a visual target that appeared at a random location on a tangent screen. We examined the relationship between complex-spike discharges and the absolute touch position, and between complex-spike discharges and relative errors in touching the screen. We used information theory to show that the complex spikes occurring at the beginning of the reach movement encode the absolute destination of the reach, and the complex spikes occurring at the end of the short-lasting movements encode the relative errors. Thus, complex spikes convey multiple types of information, consistent with the idea that they contribute both to the generation of movements and to the gradual, long-term improvement of these movements.
小脑的浦肯野细胞发放复杂锋电位，因其波形复杂而得名，在手臂运动期间发放频率约为1赫兹。尽管发放频率较低，但已有研究提出复杂锋电位有助于手臂运动的起始或运动技能的逐步改善。在此，我们记录了小脑小叶IV - VI半球浦肯野细胞的活动，同时训练猴子进行短暂的伸手动作（持续时间约200毫秒），以触碰出现在切线屏幕上随机位置的视觉目标。我们研究了复杂锋电位发放与绝对触碰位置之间的关系，以及复杂锋电位发放与触碰屏幕时的相对误差之间的关系。我们运用信息论表明，在伸手运动开始时出现的复杂锋电位编码了伸手的绝对目标位置，而在短暂运动结束时出现的复杂锋电位编码了相对误差。因此，复杂锋电位传达了多种类型的信息，这与它们既有助于运动的产生又有助于这些运动的逐步、长期改善的观点相一致。
