Cerebello-cortical feedback during motor adaptation

• Applicant: Dr. Lena Justus
• Subject Area: Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology
• Term: from 2019 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 435889873

Motor adaptation – the adaption of movements to different influences – is important to every move we make, like adjusting our arm movements when picking up objects of different weight or counteracting muscle fatigue. Several studies of patients with cerebellar damage have revealed the significance of the cerebellum to motor adaptation. In this context the cerebellum is believed to contain internal models that predict the sensory outcome of planned movements. During motor adaptation internal models are thought to be updated using prediction errors. Disturbance of the thalamic nucleus that relays cerebellar information to the cortex inhibits motor adaptation. Thus, the role of the cerebellum seems to include sending feedback, possibly about the prediction error and updating of the internal model, to the motor cortex. Surprisingly, little is known about the information transmitted in the cerebello-cortical feedback pathway and how it shapes motor cortical activity and behavioural performance. By employing in vivo calcium imaging in awake mice performing a lever press task, this study aims to elucidate information relayed in the cerebello-cortical feedback. Special focus will be put on investigating expectation mismatches, that are introduced by unexpected lateral forces, and the temporal evolution of the activity during motor adaptation to these perturbations. Additionally, the impact of cerebellar feedback on the activity in motor cortex and the behavioural performance will be assessed by combining calcium imaging with specific chemogenetic silencing of cerebellar neurons in the cerebello-cortical feedback pathway. The proposed experiments will increase our knowledge about the information transmitted from the cerebellum to the motor cortex, including its importance to motor adaptation. They will therefore improve our understanding of our movement coordination.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: United Kingdom
• Host: Professor Robin Angus Silver, Ph.D.