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Afferent Control of the Cerebellum. An Hypothesis to Explain the Differences in the Mediolateral Distribution of Mossy Fibre Terminals in the Cerebellar Cortex

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Cerebellum and Neuronal Plasticity

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((NSSA,volume 148))

Abstract

In this paper an hypothesis is developed which accounts for the different degree of clustering of mossy fibre terminals in strips within the granular layer and the relation between mossy and climbing fibres. The hypbthesis assumes that:

  • the activity of the smallest functional unit in the cerebellum, the corticonuclear microcomplex, is controlled by mossy fibre sources which operate in either a closed or open loop mode.

  • the generation of an error signal in the form of climbing fibre activity is primarily based on an efference copy of the activity of a mossy fibre source which functions in a closed loop feedback mode.

  • wrong input-output relations cannot be corrected with open loop mossy fibre input.

  • the closer the output of mossy fibre sources matches the error generating parameters, the closer the matching of climbing and mossy fibres in the cerebellar cortex.

  • cerebellar "learning" is based on the fact that the corrective action of the error signal, changes the efficacy of the granule cell axon — > Purkinje cell synapses in a non-specific direction.

The consequences of the hypothesis are discussed in relation to the distribution of cuneocerebellar and pontocerebellar mossy fibre terminals and in relation to afferents of the flocculus.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anatomy, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    N. M. Gerrits

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  1. N. M. Gerrits
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Neuroscience and Behaviour Group, Department of Anatomy, University College London, 3 Malet Place, London, WC1E 7JG, England, UK

    Mitchell Glickstein  & Christopher Yeo  & 

  2. Magdalen College, Oxford University, Oxford, England

    John Stein

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© 1987 Plenum Press, New York

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Gerrits, N.M. (1987). Afferent Control of the Cerebellum. An Hypothesis to Explain the Differences in the Mediolateral Distribution of Mossy Fibre Terminals in the Cerebellar Cortex. In: Glickstein, M., Yeo, C., Stein, J. (eds) Cerebellum and Neuronal Plasticity. NATO ASI Series, vol 148. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0965-9_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0965-9_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-8268-6

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