We tested the role of plasticity distributed over multiple synaptic sites (Hansel et al., 2001; Gao et al., 2012) by generating an analog cerebellar model embedded into a control loop connected to a robotic simulator. The robot used a three-joint arm and performed repetitive fast manipulations with different masses along an 8-shape trajectory. In accordance with biological evidence, the cerebellum model was endowed with both LTD and LTP at the PF-PC, MF-DCN and PC-DCN synapses. This resulted in a network scheme whose effectiveness was extended considerably compared to one including just PF-PC synaptic plasticity. Indeed, the system including distributed plasticity reliably self-adapted to manipulate different masses and to learn the arm-object dynamics over a time course that included fast learning and consolidation, along the lines of what has been observed in behavioral tests. In particular, PF-PC plasticity operated as a time correlator between the actual input state and the system error, while MF-DCN and PC-DCN plasticity played a key role in generating the gain controller. This model suggests that distributed synaptic plasticity allows generation of the complex learning properties of the cerebellum.
Model Type: Realistic Network
Region(s) or Organism(s): Cerebellum
Cell Type(s): Cerebellum deep nucleus neuron
Model Concept(s): Long-term Synaptic Plasticity
Simulation Environment: C or C++ program; MATLAB; Simulink
Implementer(s): Garrido, Jesus A [jesus.garrido at unipv.it]; Luque, Niceto R. [nluque at ugr.es]
References:
Garrido JA, Luque NR, D'Angelo E, Ros E. (2013). Distributed cerebellar plasticity implements adaptable gain control in a manipulation task: a closed-loop robotic simulation Frontiers in neural circuits. 7 [PubMed]