cerebellar nuclei

Brain region evolution by duplication-and-divergence -- Lessons from the cerebellar nuclei

Synchrony and Synaptic Signaling in Cerebellar Circuits

The cerebellum permits a wide range of behaviors that involve sensorimotor integration. We have been investigating how specific cellular and synaptic specializations of cerebellar neurons measured in vitro, give rise to circuit activity in vivo. We have investigated these issues by studying Purkinje neurons as well as the large neurons of the mouse cerebellar nuclei, which form the major excitatory premotor projection from the cerebellum. Large CbN cells have ion channels that favor spontaneous action potential firing and GABAA receptors that generate ultra-fast inhibitory synaptic currents, raising the possibility that these biophysical attributes may permit CbN cells to respond differently to the degree of temporal coherence of their Purkinje cell inputs. In vivo, self-initiated motor programs associated with whisking correlates with asynchronous changes in Purkinje cell simple spiking that are asynchronous across the population. The resulting inhibition converges with mossy fiber excitation to yield little change in CbN cell firing, such that cerebellar output is low or cancelled. In contrast, externally applied sensory stimuli elicits a transient, synchronous inhibition of Purkinje cell simple spiking. During the resulting strong disinhibition of CbN cells, sensory-induced excitation from mossy fibers effectively drives cerebellar outputs that increase the magnitude of reflexive whisking. Purkinje cell synchrony, therefore, may be a key variable contributing to the “positive effort” hypothesized by David Marr in 1969 to be necessary for cerebellar control of movement.

Multi-layer network learning in an electric fish

The electrosensory lobe (ELL) in mormyrid electric fish is a cerebellar-like structure that cancels the sensory effects of self-generated electric fields, allowing prey to be detected. Like the cerebellum, the ELL involves two stages of processing, analogous to the Purkinje cells and cells of the deep cerebellar nuclei. Through the work of Curtis Bell and others, a model was previously developed to describe the output stage of the ELL, but the role of the Purkinje-cell analogs, the medium ganglion (MG) cells, in the circuit had remained mysterious. I will present a complete, multi-layer circuit description of the ELL, developed in collaboration with Nate Sawtell and Salomon Muller, that reveals a novel role for the MG cells. The resulting model provides an example of how a biological system solves well-known problems associated with learning in multi-layer networks, and it reveals that ELL circuitry is organization on the basis of learning rather than by the response properties of neurons.

DEEP CEREBELLAR NUCLEI CIRCUITRY IN AMYOTROPHIQUE LATERAL SCLEROSIS (ALS)

FENS Forum 2026

TASK-DEPENDENT NEURONAL ACTIVITY IN CEREBELLAR NUCLEI OF MICE MOVING
FREELY IN DISTINCT 3D ENVIRONMENTS

FENS Forum 2026

KV1 CHANNELS REGULATE THE ELECTROPHYSIOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF DEEP CEREBELLAR NUCLEI GLYCINERGIC NEURONS

FENS Forum 2026

SYNCHRONIZED MARKER-BASED 3D MOTION CAPTURE AND CEREBELLAR NUCLEI CALCIUM IMAGING IN FREELY BEHAVING MICE

FENS Forum 2026

NEURONAL ACTIVITY OF THE CEREBELLAR NUCLEI AT THE POPULATION LEVEL ACROSS FORELIMB RELATED BEHAVIOURS

FENS Forum 2026

SHORT-TERM PLASTICITY AND SPATIAL ORGANIZATION OF EXCITATORY INPUTS IN THE CEREBELLAR NUCLEI

FENS Forum 2026

Using muscimol and in vivo electrophysiological recordings to unveil the role of the deep cerebellar nuclei on social interaction behaviors in mice

FENS Forum 2024

Culturing postnatal mouse neurons of the deep cerebellar nuclei to investigate the functional expression of TRP ion channels in the cerebellum

FENS Forum 2024

Fate mapping the earliest subset of neurons in the mouse cerebellar nuclei

FENS Forum 2024

Short-term plasticity profiles diversity of excitatory inputs on cerebellar nuclei neurons

FENS Forum 2024

Disynaptic Projections From the Cerebellar Nuclei to the Neuromodulatory Systems

Effects of acetylcholine receptor activation on properties of cerebellar nuclei neurons

The neuronal dynamics of cerebellar nuclei and medial prefrontal cortex in eyeblink conditioning adaptation task

Widespread functional convergence from cerebellar cortex to cerebellar nuclei