Local synaptic inhibition mediates cerebellar granule cell pattern separation and enables learned sensorimotor associations.

ABSTRACT: The cerebellar cortex has a key role in generating predictive sensorimotor associations. To do so, the granule cell layer is thought to establish unique sensorimotor representations for learning. However, how this is achieved and how granule cell population responses contribute to behavior have remained unclear. To address these questions, we have used in vivo calcium imaging and granule cell-specific pharmacological manipulation of synaptic inhibition in awake, behaving mice. These experiments indicate that inhibition sparsens and thresholds sensory responses, limiting overlap between sensory ensembles and preventing spiking in many granule cells that receive excitatory input. Moreover, inhibition can be recruited in a stimulus-specific manner to powerfully decorrelate multisensory ensemb

SUBMITTER: Fleming EA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11288180 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature