Searching for an Internal Representation of Stimulus Kinematics in the Response of Ventral Paraflocculus Purkinje Cells

Motor control theories propose that the central nervous system builds internal representations of the motion of both our body and external objects. These representations, called forward models, are essential for accurate motor control. For instance, to produce a precise reaching movement to catch a flying ball, the central nervous system must build predictions of the current and future states of both the arm and the ball. Accumulating evidence suggests that the cerebellar cortex contains a forward model of an individual’s body movement. However, little evidence is yet available to suggest that it also contains a forward model of the movement of external objects. We investigated whether Purkinje cell simple spike responses in an oculomotor region of the cerebellar cortex called the ventral paraflocculus contained information related to the kinematics of behaviorally relevant visual stimuli. We used a visuomotor task that obliges animals to track moving targets while keeping their eyes fixated on a stationary target to separate signals related to visual tracking from signals related to eye movement. We found that ventral paraflocculus Purkinje cells do not contain information related to the kinematics of behaviorally relevant visual stimuli; they only contain information related to eye movements. Our data stand in contrast with data obtained from cerebellar Crus I, wherein Purkinje cell discharge contains information related to moving visual stimuli. Together, these findings suggest specialization in the cerebellar cortex, with some areas participating in the computation of our movement kinematics and others computing the kinematics of behaviorally relevant stimuli.