title: Timing and plasticity in the cerebellum: focus on the granular layer.
abstract: Two of the most striking properties of the cerebellum are its control in timing of motor operations and its ability to adapt behavior to new sensorimotor associations. Here, we propose a 'time-window matching' hypothesis for granular layer processing. Our hypothesis states that mossy fiber inputs to the granular layer are transformed into well-timed spike bursts by intrinsic granule cell processing, that feedforward Golgi cell inhibition sets a limit to the duration of such bursts and that these activities are spread over particular fields in the granular layer so as to generate ongoing time-windows for proper control of interacting motor domains. The role of synaptic plasticity would be that of fine-tuning pre-wired circuits favoring activation of specific granule cell groups in relation to particular time windows. This concept has wide implications for processing in the olivo-cerebellar system as a whole.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiological and Pharmacological Sciences, University of Pavia and CNISM, Via Forlanini 6, I-27100 Pavia, Italy. dangelo@unipv.it
authors.forename: Egidio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: D'Angelo
authors.forename: Chris I
authors.initials: CI
authors.lastname: De Zeeuw
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D013998:Time Perception / Q000502:physiology*