Sensory signals are processed by the cerebellum to coordinate movements. Unipolar brush cells (UBCs) are excitatory interneurons that project to granule cells and transform their input into prolonged increases or decreases in firing, depending on their ON or OFF UBC subtype. Further extension and diversification of the input signal could be produced by UBCs that project to one another, but whether this circuitry exists was unclear. In this work we showed that UBCs innervate one another using transgenic mice and immunohistochemistry. This NEURON model explores how these feed-forward networks of UBCs could extend the length of bursts or pauses and introduce delays—transformations that may be necessary for cerebellar functions from modulation of eye movements to adaptive learning across time scales.
Region(s) or Organism(s): Cerebellum
Transmitters: Glutamate
Simulation Environment: NEURON
References:
Hariani HN et al. (2023). A system of feed-forward cerebellar circuits that extend and diversify sensory signaling. eLife. [PubMed]