Chronic In Vivo Imaging of Ponto-Cerebellar Mossy Fibers Reveals Morphological Stability during Whisker Sensory Manipulation in the Adult Rat.

ABSTRACT: The cerebellum receives extensive disynaptic input from the neocortex via the basal pontine nuclei, the neurons of which send mossy fiber (MF) axons to the granule cell layer of the contralateral cerebellar hemisphere. Although this cortico-cerebellar circuit has been implicated in tasks such as sensory discrimination and motor learning, little is known about the potential role of MF morphological plasticity in the function of the cerebellar granule cell layer. To address this issue, we labeled MFs with EGFP via viral infection of the basal pons in adult rats and performed in vivo two-photon imaging of MFs in Crus I/II of the cerebellar hemisphere over a period of several weeks. Following the acquisition of baseline images, animals were housed in control, enriched, or deprived sensory envi

SUBMITTER: Rylkova D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4676200 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov-Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature