title: Role of olivary electrical coupling in cerebellar motor learning.
abstract: The level of electrotonic coupling in the inferior olive is extremely high, but its functional role in cerebellar motor control remains elusive. Here, we subjected mice that lack olivary coupling to paradigms that require learning-dependent timing. Cx36-deficient mice showed impaired timing of both locomotion and eye-blink responses that were conditioned to a tone. The latencies of their olivary spike activities in response to the unconditioned stimulus were significantly more variable than those in wild-types. Whole-cell recordings of olivary neurons in vivo showed that these differences in spike timing result at least in part from altered interactions with their subthreshold oscillations. These results, combined with analyses of olivary activities in computer simulations at both the cellular and systems level, suggest that electrotonic coupling among olivary neurons by gap junctions is essential for proper timing of their action potentials and thereby for learning-dependent timing in cerebellar motor control.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Erasmus MC, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Ruben S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Van Der Giessen
authors.forename: Sebastiaan K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Koekkoek
authors.forename: Stijn
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: van Dorp
authors.forename: Jornt R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: De Gruijl
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cupido
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Khosrovani
authors.forename: Bjorn
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dortland
authors.forename: Kerstin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wellershaus
authors.forename: Joachim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Degen
authors.forename: Jim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Deuchars
authors.forename: Elke C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Fuchs
authors.forename: Hannah
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Monyer
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Willecke
authors.forename: Marcel T G
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: De Jeu
authors.forename: Chris I
authors.initials: CI
authors.lastname: De Zeeuw
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000009:adverse effects; D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D001767:Blinking / Q000502:physiology; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000502:physiology*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D017630:Connexins / Q000172:deficiency; D017629:Gap Junctions / Q000502:physiology*; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008124:Locomotion / Q000235:genetics; D051379:Mice; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D009847:Olivary Nucleus / Q000166:cytology*; D018408:Patch-Clamp Techniques / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013997:Time Factors; D000097004:Gap Junction delta-2 Protein
chemical_list: D017630:Connexins; D000097004:Gap Junction delta-2 Protein