TY - JOUR
T1 - Sensorimotor coding of vermal granule neurons in the developing mammalian cerebellum
AU - Markwalter, Kelly H.
AU - Yang, Yue
AU - Holy, Timothy E.
AU - Bonni, Azad
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 the authors.
PY - 2019/8/21
Y1 - 2019/8/21
N2 - The vermal cerebellum is a hub of sensorimotor integration critical for postural control and locomotion, but the nature and developmental organization of afferent information to this region have remained poorly understood in vivo. Here, we use in vivo two-photon calcium imaging of the vermal cerebellum in awake behaving male and female mice to record granule neuron responses to diverse sensorimotor cues targeting visual, auditory, somatosensory, and motor domains. Use of an activity-independent marker revealed that approximately half (54%) of vermal granule neurons were activated during these recordings. A multikernel linear model distinguished the relative influences of external stimuli and co-occurring movements on neural responses, indicating that, among the subset of activated granule neurons, locomotion (44%-56%) and facial air puffs (50%) were more commonly and reliably encoded than visual (31%-32%) and auditory (19%-28%) stimuli. Strikingly, we also uncover populations of granule neurons that respond differentially to voluntary and forced locomotion, whereas other granule neurons in the same region respond similarly to locomotion in both conditions. Finally, by combining two-photon calcium imaging with birth date labeling of granule neurons via in vivo electroporation, we find that early- and late-born granule neurons convey similarly diverse sensorimotor information to spatially distinct regions of the molecular layer. Collectively, our findings elucidate the nature and developmental organization of sensorimotor information in vermal granule neurons of the developing mammalian brain.
AB - The vermal cerebellum is a hub of sensorimotor integration critical for postural control and locomotion, but the nature and developmental organization of afferent information to this region have remained poorly understood in vivo. Here, we use in vivo two-photon calcium imaging of the vermal cerebellum in awake behaving male and female mice to record granule neuron responses to diverse sensorimotor cues targeting visual, auditory, somatosensory, and motor domains. Use of an activity-independent marker revealed that approximately half (54%) of vermal granule neurons were activated during these recordings. A multikernel linear model distinguished the relative influences of external stimuli and co-occurring movements on neural responses, indicating that, among the subset of activated granule neurons, locomotion (44%-56%) and facial air puffs (50%) were more commonly and reliably encoded than visual (31%-32%) and auditory (19%-28%) stimuli. Strikingly, we also uncover populations of granule neurons that respond differentially to voluntary and forced locomotion, whereas other granule neurons in the same region respond similarly to locomotion in both conditions. Finally, by combining two-photon calcium imaging with birth date labeling of granule neurons via in vivo electroporation, we find that early- and late-born granule neurons convey similarly diverse sensorimotor information to spatially distinct regions of the molecular layer. Collectively, our findings elucidate the nature and developmental organization of sensorimotor information in vermal granule neurons of the developing mammalian brain.
KW - Calcium imaging
KW - Cerebellar development
KW - Cerebellar granule neuron
KW - Sensorimotor encoding
KW - Two-photon imaging
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85071703399&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0086-19.2019
DO - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0086-19.2019
M3 - Article
C2 - 31235645
AN - SCOPUS:85071703399
SN - 0270-6474
VL - 39
SP - 6626
EP - 6643
JO - Journal of Neuroscience
JF - Journal of Neuroscience
IS - 34
ER -