bims-climfi 2018-11-18 papers

Issue of 2018–11–18
three papers selected by
Jun Maruta, Mount Sinai Health System

Elife. 2018 11 12. pii: e31599. [Epub ahead of print]7

Cerebellar learning using perturbations.

Guy Bouvier, Johnatan Aljadeff, Claudia Clopath, Célian Bimbard, Jonas Ranft, Antonin Blot, Jean-Pierre Nadal, Nicolas Brunel, Vincent Hakim, Boris Barbour.

The cerebellum aids the learning of fast, coordinated movements. According to current consensus, erroneously active parallel fibre synapses are depressed by complex spikes signalling movement errors. However, this theory cannot solve the credit assignment problem of processing a global movement evaluation into multiple cell-specific error signals. We identify a possible implementation of an algorithm solving this problem, whereby spontaneous complex spikes perturb ongoing movements, create eligibility traces and signal error changes guiding plasticity. Error changes are extracted by adaptively cancelling the average error. This framework, stochastic gradient descent with estimated global errors (SGDEGE), predicts synaptic plasticity rules that apparently contradict the current consensus but were supported by plasticity experiments in slices from mice under conditions designed to be physiological, highlighting the sensitivity of plasticity studies to experimental conditions. We analyse the algorithm's convergence and capacity. Finally, we suggest SGDEGE may also operate in the basal ganglia.

Keywords: Purkinje cell; cerebellum; credit assignment; learning; mouse; neuroscience; stochastic gradient descent; synaptic plasticity

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.31599

Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2018 Jul;2018 6121-6124

A Cerebellar Spiking Neural Model for Phase Reversal of Vestibulo-ocular Reflex.

Zhanhong Zhou, Xiaolong Zhai, Chung Tin.

Cerebellum possesses very rich motor control and learning capability which is critical for animals. In this study, we proposed a spiking neural network model of cerebellum for gain and phase adaptation in vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR). VOR is a critical adaptive reflexive eye movement for maintaining a stable visual field. In this model (with neuron number at the order of 104), synaptic plasticity at parallel fiber-Purkinje cell synapses was considered. In particular, we have shown that the inhibitory inputs from molecular layer interneurons on Purkinje cells play a critical role in phase adaptation of VOR. The inhibitory input from interneurons indirectly affects the strength of long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD), resulting in more drastic phase shift upon learning and hence allowing phase reversal of VOR. The strength of inhibitory input also affects the maximum phase shift that can be achieved. Our result is consistent with experiments in mutant mice with blocked inhibitory inputs.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/EMBC.2018.8513671

Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2018 Jul;2018 5077-5080

Realization of Direction Selective Motor Learning in the Artificial Cerebellum: Simulation on the Vestibuloocular Reflex Adaptation.

Shogo Takatori, Keiichiro Inagaki, Yutaka Hirata.

The vestibule-ocular reflex (VOR) has been one of the most popular model systems to investigate the role of the cerebellum in adaptive motor control. VOR motor learning can be experimentally induced by continuous application of combination of head rotating stimulus and optokinetic stimulus. For instance, in phase application of those stimuli decreases VOR gain defined by eye velocity of VOR in the dark divided by head velocity, while out of phase of those increases VOR gain. It has been known that VOR gain is modifiable context-dependently. Namely, VOR gains for leftward and rightward head rotations can be respectively increased and decreased simultaneously. The cerebellar signal processing underlying the context dependent VOR motor learning, however, is not fully uncovered. In the present study, we simulated direction selective VOR motor learning, using the artificial cerebellar neuronal network model that we developed to understand the origin of the cerebellar motor learning.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/EMBC.2018.8513225