A FN-MdV pathway and its role in cerebellar multimodular control of sensorimotor behavior

TY - JOUR

T1 - A FN-MdV pathway and its role in cerebellar multimodular control of sensorimotor behavior

AU - Wang, Xiaolu

AU - Yu, Si-Yang

AU - Ren, Zhong

AU - De Zeeuw, Chris I

AU - Gao, Zhenyu

PY - 2020

Y1 - 2020

N2 - The cerebellum is crucial for various associative sensorimotor behaviors. Delay eyeblink conditioning (DEC) depends on the simplex lobule-interposed nucleus (IN) pathway, yet it is unclear how other cerebellar modules cooperate during this task. Here, we demonstrate the contribution of the vermis-fastigial nucleus (FN) pathway in controlling DEC. We found that task-related modulations in vermal Purkinje cells and FN neurons predict conditioned responses (CRs). Coactivation of the FN and the IN allows for the generation of proper motor commands for CRs, but only FN output fine-tunes unconditioned responses. The vermis-FN pathway launches its signal via the contralateral ventral medullary reticular nucleus, which converges with the command from the simplex-IN pathway onto facial motor neurons. We propose that the IN pathway specifically drives CRs, whereas the FN pathway modulates the amplitudes of eyelid closure during DEC. Thus, associative sensorimotor task optimization requires synergistic modulation of different olivocerebellar modules each provide unique contributions.

AB - The cerebellum is crucial for various associative sensorimotor behaviors. Delay eyeblink conditioning (DEC) depends on the simplex lobule-interposed nucleus (IN) pathway, yet it is unclear how other cerebellar modules cooperate during this task. Here, we demonstrate the contribution of the vermis-fastigial nucleus (FN) pathway in controlling DEC. We found that task-related modulations in vermal Purkinje cells and FN neurons predict conditioned responses (CRs). Coactivation of the FN and the IN allows for the generation of proper motor commands for CRs, but only FN output fine-tunes unconditioned responses. The vermis-FN pathway launches its signal via the contralateral ventral medullary reticular nucleus, which converges with the command from the simplex-IN pathway onto facial motor neurons. We propose that the IN pathway specifically drives CRs, whereas the FN pathway modulates the amplitudes of eyelid closure during DEC. Thus, associative sensorimotor task optimization requires synergistic modulation of different olivocerebellar modules each provide unique contributions.

U2 - 10.1038/s41467-020-19960-x

DO - 10.1038/s41467-020-19960-x

M3 - Article

C2 - 33247191

SN - 2041-1723

VL - 11

SP - 6050

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

IS - 1

ER -