Purkinje cells in the cerebellum are among the largest neurons in the brain and have been extensively investigated in rodents. However, their morphological and physiological properties remain poorly understood in humans. In this study, we utilized high-resolution morphological reconstructions and unique electrophysiological recordings of human Purkinje cells ex vivo to generate computational models and estimate computational capacity. An inter-species comparison showed that human Purkinje cell had similar fractal structures but were larger than those of mouse Purkinje cells. Consequently, given a similar spine density (2/μm), human Purkinje cell hosted approximately 7.5 times more dendritic spines than those of mice. Moreover, human Purkinje cells had a higher dendritic complexity than mouse Purkinje cells and usually emitted 2–3 main dendritic trunks instead of one. Intrinsic electro-responsiveness was similar between the two species, but model simulations revealed that the dendrites could process ~6.5 times (n = 51 vs. n = 8) more input patterns in human Purkinje cells than in mouse Purkinje cells. Thus, while human Purkinje cells maintained spike discharge properties similar to those of rodents during evolution, they developed more complex dendrites, enhancing computational capacity.

小脑中的浦肯野细胞是大脑中最大的神经元之一，已在啮齿动物中进行了广泛研究。然而，它们在人类中的形态和生理特性仍然知之甚少。在这项研究中，我们利用人类浦肯野细胞离体的高分辨率形态学重建和独特的电生理记录来生成计算模型并估计计算能力。种间比较表明，人类浦肯野细胞具有相似的分形结构，但比小鼠浦肯野细胞大。因此，在具有相似的脊柱密度 （2/μm） 的情况下，人浦肯野细胞的树突棘比小鼠多约 7.5 倍。此外，人类浦肯野细胞比小鼠浦肯野细胞具有更高的树突状复杂性，通常发出 2-3 个主要树突状干，而不是一个。两个物种之间的内在电响应性相似，但模型模拟显示，树突在人类浦肯野细胞中可以处理的输入模式是小鼠浦肯野细胞多 ~6.5 倍（n = 51 vs. n = 8）。因此，虽然人类浦肯野细胞在进化过程中保持了类似于啮齿动物的刺突放电特性，但它们发育出更复杂的树突，增强了计算能力。