Article
Biology
Omid A. Zobeiri, Kathleen E. Cullen
Summary: Accurately controlling posture and spatial orientation during self-motion requires integration of vestibular and neck proprioceptive inputs. The anterior vermis of the cerebellum is believed to play a crucial role in transforming sensory information into an estimate of body motion. The response dynamics of Purkinje cells in the anterior vermis show heterogeneity and they encode an intermediate representation of self-motion between head and body motion. This heterogeneity is proposed to underlie the cerebellum's ability to compute the dynamic representation of body motion for postural control and perceptual stability.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Arnaud L. Lalive, Mauro Congiu, Christopher Lewis, Dominik Groos, Joseph A. Clerke, Anna Tchenio, Yuan Ge, Fritjof Helmchen, Manuel Mameli
Summary: Through experiments with mice, it was found that the activity of lateral habenula neurons decreases with the decrease of reward-related stimuli, and this phenomenon can guide reward-driven behavior through synaptic inhibition.
Article
Neurosciences
Naveen Sendhilnathan, Michael E. Goldberg, Anna E. Ipata
Summary: Recent studies have shown that the cerebellum is not only involved in motor control but also plays a role in reward processing. In an experiment with monkeys, researchers found that the discharge patterns of cerebellar cortex changed during the learning of associations between movements and visual symbols. Despite being related to both reward and movement, these signals were independent of each other.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Review
Neurosciences
Adrian Handforth, Eric J. Lang
Summary: The review discusses advances in understanding Purkinje cell complex spike physiology and factors related to tremor, such as coupling of IO neurons, the role of climbing fibers, and the increase in CS synchrony caused by GABA receptor antagonists. Studies suggest that increased CS synchrony may be a potential cause of syndromic essential tremor.
Article
Neurosciences
Kaaya Tamura, Yuki Yamamoto, Taira Kobayashi, Rin Kuriyama, Tadashi Yamazaki
Summary: This study shows that individual Purkinje cells can perform complex information processing through the nonlinear dynamics of dendrites. They can discriminate different directions of pulse sequences and play a crucial role in motor control and learning.
FRONTIERS IN CELLULAR NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Hannah F. Waguespack, Rafael S. Maior, Carolina Campos-Rodriguez, Jessica T. Jacobs, Ludise Malkova, Patrick A. Forcelli
Summary: Sensorimotor gating is disrupted in neuropsychiatric disorders, and prepulse inhibition (PPI) is a form of sensorimotor gating that has been widely studied in rodents. However, recent research shows differences in the circuitry controlling PPI between rodents and macaques. While the nucleus accumbens is a key modulatory node for PPI in rodents, its role in primates has yet to be investigated. In this study, we found that quinpirole disrupts PPI in macaques when infused into the nucleus accumbens, unlike muscimol which had no effect.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
An Cheng, Wenbin Jia, David I. Finkelstein, Nadia Stefanova, Haoyang Wang, Takuya Sasaki, Ichiro Kawahata, Kohji Fukunaga
Summary: The specific inhibitor MF6 can reduce α-Syn aggregation, improve cell viability, motor function, and reduce oxidative stress and inflammation levels. It also improves cerebellar function and neuron morphology through regulating endocytosis, showing potential for the treatment of multiple system atrophy (MSA).
ACTA PHARMACOLOGICA SINICA
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Yunliang Zang, Erik De Schutter
Summary: This study explored the coding strategy used by individual neurons in the cerebellar Purkinje cells, finding that increasing input intensity shifts cells from linear rate-coders to burst-pause timing-coders through triggering dendritic spikes. Both linear and burst-pause computations use individual branches as computational units, challenging the traditional view of these cells as linear point neurons. Dendritic spike thresholds can be regulated by various factors to expand the dynamic range of information processing.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Oncology
Frederique Mittler, Patricia Obeid, Vincent Haguet, Cedric Allier, Sophie Gerbaud, Anastasia Rulina, Xavier Gidrol, Maxim Y. Balakirev
Summary: The study found that the therapeutic outcome of MLN4924 on prostate cancer cells is influenced by mechanical stress. Specifically, in certain cell types, the stimulation of RhoA and RhoB can increase the level of tight junction proteins, thereby increasing mechanical strain. However, in cells that undergo EMT, stimulation of RhoC promotes cell scattering and invasion. The study discovers that MLN4924 can act as a mechanotherapeutic agent, offering new ways to improve the efficacy of neddylation inhibition as an anticancer approach.
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL & CLINICAL CANCER RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Marta Fernandez, Carlos A. Sanchez-Leon, Javier Llorente, Teresa Sierra-Arregui, Shira Knafo, Javier Marquez-Ruiz, Olga Penagarikano
Summary: Research on a mouse model of autism with Cntnap2 gene knockout showed alterations in cerebellar sensory processing, including changes in firing patterns of Purkinje cells and intrinsic properties, providing insight into the pathophysiological mechanisms of core sensory deficits in autism.
Article
Anatomy & Morphology
Alberto Roldan-Sastre, Carolina Aguado, Alejandro Martin-Belmonte, Rocio Alfaro-Ruiz, Ana Esther Moreno-Martinez, Rafael Lujan
Summary: The study investigated the expression and localization of G(alphao) in the cerebellar cortex, revealing its crucial role as a signal transducer of specific GPCRs in different neuronal populations. The results showed a complex distribution of G(alphao) at both cellular and subcellular levels, indicating its involvement in excitatory synapses and potential regulatory functions in the brain.
FRONTIERS IN NEUROANATOMY
(2021)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Brandon T. Craig, Adam Morrill, Britt Anderson, James Danckert, Christopher L. Striemer
Summary: This study investigated the impact of cerebellar damage on spatial, temporal, and sustained attention for the first time. Results showed that cerebellar damage affected reflexive covert attention and attentional blink tasks, but not voluntary covert attention or the sustained attention to response task. Damage to Crus II of the left posterior cerebellum was associated with impaired performance on certain attention tasks. These findings suggest that specific cerebellar regions may play a role in both spatial and temporal visual attention.
Article
Neurosciences
Amarender R. Bogadhi, Leor N. Katz, Anil Bollimunta, David A. Leopold, Richard J. Krauzlis
Summary: Recent fMRI experiments have identified the floor of the superior temporal sulcus (fSTS) in the macaque temporal cortex as the primary cortical target of superior colliculus (SC) activity in relation to attention. The inactivation of SC decreases attentional modulations in fSTS neurons by increasing their activity for ignored stimuli and decreasing their activity for attended stimuli. Furthermore, SC inactivation leads to a reduction in the selectivity of fSTS neurons for particular visual objects.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Yaiza M. Arenas, Mar Martinez-Garcia, Marta Llansola, Vicente Felipo
Summary: The study found that hyperammonemic rats reproduce the features of minimal hepatic encephalopathy in cirrhotic patients, which is influenced by enhanced GABAergic neurotransmission due to neuroinflammation. The research also discovered that enhanced activation of TrkB and the TNFR1-S1PR2-CCR2-BDNF pathway leads to increased synthesis and extracellular release of GABA, as well as increased membrane expression of GABA(A) receptors and chloride gradient. Blocking these pathways may improve motor function in hepatic encephalopathy and other pathologies associated with neuroinflammation.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Mathematical & Computational Biology
Charles Randy Gallistel, Fredrik Johansson, Dan-Anders Jirenhed, Anders Rasmussen, Matthew Ricci, Germund Hesslow
Summary: The encoding of the interval between CS and US in eyeblink conditioning is mainly located within a small population of cerebellar Purkinje cells, where CS triggers a pause in spontaneous firing rate to time the blink. A Bayesian algorithm can be used to identify pause onset and offset, which are proportional to CS-US interval, with no significant correlation between onset and offset.
FRONTIERS IN COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)