Full-length reviewIs the cerebellum like cerebellar-like structures?
Section snippets
Introduction: the cerebellum superstar
Ever since the days of Ramon y Cajal [9] the cerebellum has been famous for its ‘crystal-like’ organization, repeating morphological features that appear to be virtually the same throughout the whole structure. This apparent simplicity has attracted the attention of many researchers over the last 100 years and yet, despite all the efforts, the question of cerebellar function remains unanswered. While classic neurobiology views the cerebellum as an essential part of the motor control system,
Anatomical considerations
Cerebellar-like structures got their name from their cerebellum-like anatomy. Since anatomy frequently reflects function, let us first consider the similarity and the difference between these two (Fig. 1).
The cerebellum has one layer of principal neurons — Purkinje cells. All Purkinje cell dendrites are aligned in the same plane and face the outer side of the cerebellar cortex. All Purkinje cell axons run in the opposite, inward, direction to contact cells of the deep cerebellar nuclei. Thus
Function of cerebellar-like structures
The function of cerebellar-like structures has been extensively studied. Despite the difference in the modality of sensory inputs among the various cerebellar-like structures, all of the non-mammalian ones carry out the same computation: subtraction of ‘sensory expectations’. In the mammalian dorsal cochlear nucleus the nature of the computation is still unknown.
The dorsal octavolateral nucleus of elasmobranch fishes is a particularly well studied example [40]. In this structure
Inferior olive as a filtering station for peripheral sensory information
The function(s) of the cerebellum is still an open question. Can anatomical, developmental and molecular similarity between the cerebellum and cerebellar-like structures be extended to function? The most striking (and probably the principal) difference between the cerebellum and cerebellum-like structures is the presence of the inferior olivary nucleus as the source of climbing fiber input in the former in place of primary afferent input in the latter. Can the inferior olivary nucleus be viewed
What kind of computation does the cerebellum perform?
Is there one specific function that characterizes the involvement of the cerebellum in the wide variety of tasks it is said to carry out: movement, sensory acquisition, attention and emotions? In both the classical conditioning and the VOR experimental paradigms the involvement of the cerebellum is related to an association of two sensory stimuli. In the case of classical conditioning it is CS and US. In the case of VOR it is vestibular and visual signals. In both paradigms one of the stimuli
Conclusions
I have argued that the cerebellum and cerebellar-like structures are involved in the same kind of computation: the subtraction of sensory expectations. The main difference between the two is that in the case of the cerebellum, the inferior olivary nucleus evolved to ensure prior gating of sensory information to the cerebellar cortex based on whether or not it is expected. Due to the filtering properties of the inferior olivary nucleus, a comparison between the signals carried by the parallel
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The Brains of Cartilaginous Fishes
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2015, Fish PhysiologyAre mushroom bodies cerebellum-like structures?
2011, Arthropod Structure and DevelopmentCitation Excerpt :This is not to imply that the mushroom bodies are analogous to a cerebellum, or any other cerebellum-like structure; rather, a shared computational function underlying the roles of all of these brain centers is suggested by the profound similarities of their neural architectures. An adaptive sensory filter would be an important adaptation for any animal that actively explores its environment (Devor, 2000); indeed, if the mushroom bodies are considered cerebellum-like structures, these brain regions are found in nearly all animals that actively search for food and mates (Fig. 1). Additionally, the associative plasticity underlying the adaptive filter function can support other plasticity-requiring behaviors such as learning and memory, as is the case for the cerebellum (Jirenhed et al., 2007).
Evidence for a link among cognition, language and emotion in cerebellar malformations
2010, CortexCitation Excerpt :Since the beginning of the 1980s there has been a growing interest in cerebellar non-motor functions and their role in a neurobehavioral model of higher-order cognition (Ito, 1984, 1993, 2002, 2008; Ivry and Keele, 1989; Leiner et al., 1991, 1993; Schmahmann, 1991, 1997, 2006; Schmahmann and Sherman, 1998). At present, the precise nature of the cerebellar contribution to higher-order information processing is unclear, and experimental and clinical investigations have provided evidence for different theoretical stances that see the cerebellum as an event timing device (Ivry and Keele, 1989; Ivry et al., 2002; Ivry and Spencer, 2004); an active sensory mismatch detection mechanism (Devor, 2000; Bower, 2002); an internal prearticulatory verbal code enhancer (Ackermann et al., 2004); a homeostatic supervisor of on-going performance (Schmahmann, 1996); an internal model encoder (Ito, 2008). However, all these theories share the assumption that the cerebellar function is based on the computational power of the cerebellar unit learning machines, constituted by highly modular and serially repeated complexes of parallel fiber-Purkinje cell synapses, modulated by error-signaling, long-term depression inducing climbing fibers (Ito, 2006).
On the role and origin of isochrony in human rhythmic entrainment
2009, CortexCitation Excerpt :Moreover, the act of copying during co-operative synchrony requires extracting the length of intervals defined by another person's actions from their sensory admixture with those produced by oneself at virtually the same time. This feat is likely to draw on the nervous systems' ability to discount the sensory consequences of self-produced movement from the afferent sensory stream, a function in which the cerebellum, again, appears to play a major role (Bell et al., 1997; Blakemore et al., 1998; Dean et al., 2002; Devor, 2000; Miall et al., 1993). The fact that intervals generated in the central tendency mode are of the same length and relate to the same type of repetitive movements as those of the copying mode would seem to argue against assimilating the central tendency mode to the characteristics of the cognitively controlled timing system, with its longer temporal horizons.