Philippe Isope (Institut des Neurosciences Cellulaires et Intégratives, Université de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France) | Unraveling modular information processing in cerebellar microcircuits : a gateway to motor control in movement disorders?

Abstract

Understanding the interaction of the cerebellum with forebrain motor structures and its participation in pathology is essential to design innovative therapeutic approaches. To understand, and ultimately manipulate, the integrative role of the cerebellum in the motor circuit its input/output transformation needs to be elucidated. We then study how the cerebellum processes ongoing incoming cortical and spinal activity before feeding it back into the cortex and spinal cord respectively, with an emphasis on the spatio-temporal organization of activity within the cerebellum.

Although the cellular organization of the cerebellar cortex looks homogeneous across lobules and folia, anatomical and molecular data have shown that the cerebellum is also organized in modules. Functional studies have demonstrated that task-related modules can be identified and selectively modified. We postulate that targeting and identifying individual cerebellar modules will clarify the fundamental rules determining functional synaptic organization of the cerebellar modular system. To address these issues, we combine electrophysiological techniques with recent genetically-targeted optical tools.