bims-climfi Biomed News
on Cerebellar cortical circuitry
Issue of 2021–03–28
two papers selected by
Jun Maruta, Mount Sinai Health System
  1. Adaptive Balance in Posterior Cerebellum.
  2. Accounting for uncertainty: inhibition for neural inference in the cerebellum.
  1. Front Neurol. 2021 ;12 635259
    Adaptive Balance in Posterior Cerebellum.
    Neal H Barmack, Vito Enrico Pettorossi.
      Vestibular and optokinetic space is represented in three-dimensions in vermal lobules IX-X (uvula, nodulus) and hemisphere lobule X (flocculus) of the cerebellum. Vermal lobules IX-X encodes gravity and head movement using the utricular otolith and the two vertical semicircular canals. Hemispheric lobule X encodes self-motion using optokinetic feedback about the three axes of the semicircular canals. Vestibular and visual adaptation of this circuitry is needed to maintain balance during perturbations of self-induced motion. Vestibular and optokinetic (self-motion detection) stimulation is encoded by cerebellar climbing and mossy fibers. These two afferent pathways excite the discharge of Purkinje cells directly. Climbing fibers preferentially decrease the discharge of Purkinje cells by exciting stellate cell inhibitory interneurons. We describe instances adaptive balance at a behavioral level in which prolonged vestibular or optokinetic stimulation evokes reflexive eye movements that persist when the stimulation that initially evoked them stops. Adaptation to prolonged optokinetic stimulation also can be detected at cellular and subcellular levels. The transcription and expression of a neuropeptide, corticotropin releasing factor (CRF), is influenced by optokinetically-evoked olivary discharge and may contribute to optokinetic adaptation. The transcription and expression of microRNAs in floccular Purkinje cells evoked by long-term optokinetic stimulation may provide one of the subcellular mechanisms by which the membrane insertion of the GABAA receptors is regulated. The neurosteroids, estradiol (E2) and dihydrotestosterone (DHT), influence adaptation of vestibular nuclear neurons to electrically-induced potentiation and depression. In each section of this review, we discuss how adaptive changes in the vestibular and optokinetic subsystems of lobule X, inferior olivary nuclei and vestibular nuclei may contribute to the control of balance.
    Keywords:  Purkinje cell; cerebellum; corticotropin releasing factor; inferior olive; microRNA; otolith; semicircular canal; vestibular
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2021.635259
  2. Proc Biol Sci. 2021 Mar 31. 288(1947): 20210276
    Accounting for uncertainty: inhibition for neural inference in the cerebellum.
    Ensor Rafael Palacios, Conor Houghton, Paul Chadderton.
      Sensorimotor coordination is thought to rely on cerebellar-based internal models for state estimation, but the underlying neural mechanisms and specific contribution of the cerebellar components is unknown. A central aspect of any inferential process is the representation of uncertainty or conversely precision characterizing the ensuing estimates. Here, we discuss the possible contribution of inhibition to the encoding of precision of neural representations in the granular layer of the cerebellar cortex. Within this layer, Golgi cells influence excitatory granule cells, and their action is critical in shaping information transmission downstream to Purkinje cells. In this review, we equate the ensuing excitation-inhibition balance in the granular layer with the outcome of a precision-weighted inferential process, and highlight the physiological characteristics of Golgi cell inhibition that are consistent with such computations.
    Keywords:  granule cell layer; neural computation; neural networks; sensorimotor; state estimation
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.0276
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