QUANTITATIVE ELECTRON-MICROSCOPE STUDY OF SYNAPTIC TERMINALS TO BASKET NEURONS IN CEREBELLAR CORTEX OF RAT

Abstract

Quantitative EM study of synaptic input to 40 cerebellar basket neurons in the rat revealed that while the dendritic tree (1580 .mu.m on average) receives almost exclusively excitatory parallel fibers (2420/dendritic tree of single basket cell), the perikaryonal surface receives in addition to parallel axons a well-developed (26% of all axosomatic boutons) inhibitory input. The few climbing fibers contacting BC [basket cell] somata did not establish true synaptic articulations.