Spreading depression (SD) occurs in the cerebellum of an elasmobranch fish, the skate (Raja erinacea, Raja ocellata). The elasmobranch cerebellum, because of its unique separation of granular form molecular layer, provides an excellent opportunity to study the characteristics of SD in two distinct neuronal populations. Both the DC potential shifts and changes in neuronal activity effected by SD were analyzed. The SD DC potential shifts in both layers closely resembled those in mammalian cerebral cortices. Consisting of a predominantly negative extracellular potential shift, they were typically 1--10 min in duration and reached 5--40 mV peak amplitudes. The largest negative shifts were found in the granular layer, without any consistent positive phases in the white matter, molecular, or granular layers. The SD propagated radially from surface electrical stimulation at 0.78 mm/min (+/- 0.16, n = 8) in the molecular layer and 0.43 mm/min (+/- 0.17, n = 8) in the granular layer at 15 degrees C. At 18 degrees C, the molecular layer propagatory velocity was 1.1 mm/min (+/- 0.12, n = 20) while, at 10 degrees C, it was 0.52 mm/min (+/- 0.21, n = 20), suggesting a temperature-dependent Q10 factor of 2. A profound depression of both spontaneous and evoked neuronal activity accompanied the DC potential shift. Activation of Purkinje cells antidromically, white matter, and granular layer neurons was typically abolished by the peak of the negative DC shift. However, a significant increase in granular layer excitability often followed the neuronal depression, remaining so far up to an hour. Repeated waves of SD sometimes occurred in the absence of neuronal recovery. A similar post-SD excitability increase was not seen in molecular layer neurons. Intracellular recordings from Purkinje cells revealed a spontaneous burst of action potentials at the onset of SD, closely followed by a depolarization of membrane potential from an average of -64 mV (+/- 12 mV, n = 3) to -11 mV (+/- 5 mV, n = 3).