Cerebellar Contribution to Preparatory Activity in Motor Neocortex.

ABSTRACT: In motor neocortex, preparatory activity predictive of specific movements is maintained by a positive feedback loop with the thalamus. Motor thalamus receives excitatory input from the cerebellum, which learns to generate predictive signals for motor control. The contribution of this pathway to neocortical preparatory signals remains poorly understood. Here, we show that, in a virtual reality conditioning task, cerebellar output neurons in the dentate nucleus exhibit preparatory activity similar to that in anterolateral motor cortex prior to reward acquisition. Silencing activity in dentate nucleus by photoactivating inhibitory Purkinje cells in the cerebellar cortex caused robust, short-latency suppression of preparatory activity in anterolateral motor cortex. Our results suggest that pre

SUBMITTER: Chabrol FP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6693889 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature