Feedforward excitatory and inhibitory circuits regulate cerebellar output, but how these circuits interact to shape the somatodendritic excitability of Purkinje cells during motor behaviour remains unresolved. Here we perform dendritic and somatic patch-clamp recordings in vivo combined with optogenetic silencing of interneurons to investigate how dendritic excitation and inhibition generates b...

Many theories of cerebellar function assume that long-term depression (LTD) of parallel fiber (PF) synapses enables Purkinje cells to learn to recognize PF activity patterns. We have studied the LTD-based recognition of PF patterns in a biophysically realistic Purkinje-cell model. With simple-spike firing as observed in vivo, the presentation of a pattern resulted in a burst of spikes followed ...

Of the six glutamate receptor (GluR) channel subunit families identified by molecular cloning, five have been shown to constitute either the AMPA, kainate, or NMDA receptor channel, whereas the function of the delta subunit family remains unknown. The selective localization of the delta 2 subunit of the GluR delta subfamily in cerebellar Purkinje cells prompted us to examine its possible physio...

The electrical properties of rat Purkinje cells and synapses from granule cells were studied in dissociated cell cultures. To identify the cells we used an immunohistochemical method and recorded voltage-gated and synaptic currents with the patch-clamp technique (the whole-cell mode). Cultured Purkinje cells generated action potentials similar to those recorded from in vitro slices or in vivo p...

The Scn8a gene encodes the voltage-gated Na channel α subunit NaV1.6, which is widely expressed throughout the nervous system. Global null mutations that eliminate Scn8a in all cells result in severe motor dysfunction and premature death, precluding analysis of the physiological role of NaV1.6 in different neuronal types. To test the effect of cerebellar NaV1.6 on motor coordination in mice, we...

With the use of retrograde transport of horseradish peroxidase we confirmed the observation of Yamamoto and Shimoyama ([ 19771 Neurosci Lett. 5279-283) that Purkinje cells of the rabbit flocculus projecting to the medial vestibular nucleus are located in two discrete zones, FZIl and FZlv, that alternate with two other Purkinje cell zones, FZI and FZIII, projecting to the superior vestibular nuc...

UNLABELLED Neuronal atrophy in neurodegenerative diseases is commonly viewed as an early event in a continuum that ultimately results in neuronal loss. In a mouse model of the polyglutamine disorder spinocerebellar ataxia type 1 (SCA1), we tested the hypothesis that cerebellar Purkinje neuron atrophy serves an adaptive role rather than being simply a nonspecific response to injury. In acute cer...

The Scn8a gene encodes the voltage-gated Na channel alpha subunit Na(V)1.6, which is widely expressed throughout the nervous system. Global null mutations that eliminate Scn8a in all cells result in severe motor dysfunction and premature death, precluding analysis of the physiological role of Na(V)1.6 in different neuronal types. To test the effect of cerebellar Na(V)1.6 on motor coordination i...

The Purkinje cell and their synaptic contacts have been described using (1) light microsocopy, (2) transmission and scanning electron microscopy, and freeze etching technique, (3) conventional and field emission scanning electron microscopy and cryofracture methods, (4) confocal laser scanning microscopy using intravital stain FM64, and (5) immunocytochemical techniques for Synapsin-I, PSD9-5, ...

The appearance of cyclic guanosine 3':5'-monophosphate-dependent protein kinase (cGK), an enzyme that may be involved in the regulation of various aspects of neuronal function and that is highly concentrated in cerebellar Purkinje cells, was studied in the developing and adult monkey cerebellum by indirect immunofluorescent staining. The appearance and distribution of cGK immunoreactivity were ...