Abstract

The intracortical pathways of climbing fibers were traced in several vertebrate cerebella using light microscopy, confocal laser scanning microscopy, scanning and transmission electron microscopy. They were identified as fine fibers up to 1(micron thick, with a characteristic crossing-over bifurcation pattern. Climbing fiber collaterals were tridimensionally visualized forming thin climbing fiber glomeruli in the granular layer. Confocal laser scanning microscopy revealed three types of collateral processes at the interface between granular and Purkinje cell layers. Scanning electron microscopy showed climbing fiber retrograde collaterals in the molecular layer. Asymmetric synaptic contacts of climbing fibers with Purkinje dendritic spines and stellate neuron dendrites were characterized by transmission electron microscopy. Correlative microscopy allowed us to obtain the basic three-dimensional morphological features of climbing fibers in several vertebrates and to show with more accuracy a higher degree of lateral collateralization of these fibers within the cerebellar cortex. The correlative microscopy approach provides new views in the cerebellar cortex information processing.