Purkinje Cell

Cellula Purkinjei

The sole output neuron of the cerebellar cortex, a planar dendritic arbor bearing up to 200,000 spines, arranged in a single sheet between the granular and molecular layers.

Function

GABAergic and inhibitory: their sole target is the deep cerebellar nuclei. Each Purkinje cell receives one powerful climbing-fiber input from the inferior olive (generating complex spikes) and roughly 150,000 parallel-fiber inputs from granule cells (generating simple spikes). The Marr-Albus-Ito theory of cerebellar learning depends on long-term depression at parallel-fiber / Purkinje synapses.

Morphology

A single large soma (~20–40 µm) arrayed in a monolayer between the granular and molecular layers. The dendritic arbor is enormous, nearly two-dimensional, and oriented perpendicular to the axis of the folium, a flat fan sliced through by parallel fibers.

Specification

  • Neurotransmitter: GABA
  • Receptors: AMPA; mGluR1; GABA-A
  • Location: Cerebellar cortex, in a single sheet between the granular and molecular layers.
  • Projections: Deep cerebellar nuclei; Vestibular nuclei
  • Firing: Simple spikes (fast); Complex spikes
  • Markers: CALB1/calbindin; PCP2/L7; PVALB/parvalbumin; ALDOC/Zebrin II (compartment marker)
  • Developmental origin: Cerebellar ventricular zone
  • Disease: Selective Purkinje cell loss underlies the spinocerebellar ataxias (SCA1-6, among others) and contributes to alcoholic cerebellar degeneration.
  • Cell Ontology: CL:0000121

References

  1. Ito M (2001). Cerebellar long-term depression: characterization, signal transduction, and functional roles.. Physiol Rev 81: 1143–1195 PMID 11427694
  2. Klockgether T (2010). Sporadic ataxia with adult onset: classification and diagnostic criteria.. Lancet Neurol 9: 94–104 PMID 20083040

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