Conversion of Graded Presynaptic Climbing Fiber Activity into Graded Postsynaptic Ca2+ Signals by Purkinje Cell Dendrites.

ABSTRACT: The brain must make sense of external stimuli to generate relevant behavior. We used a combination of in vivo approaches to investigate how the cerebellum processes sensory-related information. We found that the inferior olive encodes contexts of sensory-associated external cues in a graded manner, apparent in the presynaptic activity of their axonal projections (climbing fibers) in the cerebellar cortex. Individual climbing fibers were broadly responsive to different sensory modalities but relayed sensory-related information to the cortex in a lobule-dependent manner. Purkinje cell dendrites faithfully transformed this climbing fiber activity into dendrite-wide Ca2+ signals without a direct contribution from the mossy fiber pathway. These results demonstrate that the size of climbing-fibe

SUBMITTER: Gaffield MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6533163 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature