scholarly journals Disynaptic cerebrocerebellar pathways originating from multiple functionally distinct cortical areas

eLife ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia U Henschke ◽  
Janelle MP Pakan

The cerebral cortex and cerebellum both play important roles in sensorimotor processing, however, precise connections between these major brain structures remain elusive. Using anterograde mono-trans-synaptic tracing, we elucidate cerebrocerebellar pathways originating from primary motor, sensory, and association cortex. We confirm a highly organized topography of corticopontine projections in mice; however, we found no corticopontine projections originating from primary auditory cortex and detail several potential extra-pontine cerebrocerebellar pathways. The cerebellar hemispheres were the major target of resulting disynaptic mossy fiber terminals, but we also found at least sparse cerebrocerebellar projections to every lobule of the cerebellum. Notably, projections originating from association cortex resulted in less laterality than primary sensory/motor cortices. Within molecularly defined cerebellar modules we found spatial overlap of mossy fiber terminals, originating from functionally distinct cortical areas, within crus I, paraflocculus, and vermal regions IV/V and VI - highlighting these regions as potential hubs for multimodal cortical influence.

Author(s):  
Werner J. Niklowitz

After intoxication of rabbits with certain substances such as convulsant agents (3-acetylpyridine), centrally acting drugs (reserpine), or toxic metal compounds (tetraethyl lead) a significant observation by phase microscope is the loss of contrast of the hippocampal mossy fiber layer. It has been suggested that this alteration, as well as changes seen with the electron microscope in the hippocampal mossy fiber boutons, may be related to a loss of neurotransmitters. The purpose of these experiments was to apply the OsO4-zinc-iodide staining technique to the study of these structural changes since it has been suggested that OsO4-zinc-iodide stain reacts with neurotransmitters (acetylcholine, catecholamines).Domestic New Zealand rabbits (2.5 to 3 kg) were used. Hippocampal tissue was removed from normal and experimental animals treated with 3-acetylpyridine (antimetabolite of nicotinamide), reserpine (anti- hypertensive/tranquilizer), or iproniazid (antidepressant/monamine oxidase inhibitor). After fixation in glutaraldehyde hippocampal tissue was treated with OsO4-zinc-iodide stain and further processed for phase and electron microscope studies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Lohse ◽  
Johannes C. Dahmen ◽  
Victoria M. Bajo ◽  
Andrew J. King

AbstractIntegration of information across the senses is critical for perception and is a common property of neurons in the cerebral cortex, where it is thought to arise primarily from corticocortical connections. Much less is known about the role of subcortical circuits in shaping the multisensory properties of cortical neurons. We show that stimulation of the whiskers causes widespread suppression of sound-evoked activity in mouse primary auditory cortex (A1). This suppression depends on the primary somatosensory cortex (S1), and is implemented through a descending circuit that links S1, via the auditory midbrain, with thalamic neurons that project to A1. Furthermore, a direct pathway from S1 has a facilitatory effect on auditory responses in higher-order thalamic nuclei that project to other brain areas. Crossmodal corticofugal projections to the auditory midbrain and thalamus therefore play a pivotal role in integrating multisensory signals and in enabling communication between different sensory cortical areas.


2002 ◽  
Vol 88 (1) ◽  
pp. 540-543 ◽  
Author(s):  
John J. Foxe ◽  
Glenn R. Wylie ◽  
Antigona Martinez ◽  
Charles E. Schroeder ◽  
Daniel C. Javitt ◽  
...  

Using high-field (3 Tesla) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we demonstrate that auditory and somatosensory inputs converge in a subregion of human auditory cortex along the superior temporal gyrus. Further, simultaneous stimulation in both sensory modalities resulted in activity exceeding that predicted by summing the responses to the unisensory inputs, thereby showing multisensory integration in this convergence region. Recently, intracranial recordings in macaque monkeys have shown similar auditory-somatosensory convergence in a subregion of auditory cortex directly caudomedial to primary auditory cortex (area CM). The multisensory region identified in the present investigation may be the human homologue of CM. Our finding of auditory-somatosensory convergence in early auditory cortices contributes to mounting evidence for multisensory integration early in the cortical processing hierarchy, in brain regions that were previously assumed to be unisensory.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 229-239

The endocannabinoid system is widely expressed in the limbic system, prefrontal cortical areas, and brain structures regulating neuroendocrine stress responses, which explains the key role of this system in the control of emotions. In this review, we update recent advances on the function of the endocannabinoid system in determining the value of fear-evoking stimuli and promoting appropriate behavioral responses for stress resilience. We also review the alterations in the activity of the endocannabinoid system during fear, stress, and anxiety, and the pathophysiological role of each component of this system in the control of these protective emotional responses that also trigger pathological emotional disorders. In spite of all the evidence, we have not yet taken advantage of the therapeutic implications of this important role of the endocannabinoid system, and possible future strategies to improve the treatment of these emotional disorders are discussed.


2003 ◽  
Vol 89 (3) ◽  
pp. 1402-1413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Youssouf Cissé ◽  
François Grenier ◽  
Igor Timofeev ◽  
Mircea Steriade

Intracellular recordings from association cortical areas 5 and 7 were performed in cats under barbiturate or ketamine-xylazine anesthesia to investigate the activities of different classes of neurons involved in callosal pathways, which were electrophysiologically characterized by depolarizing current steps. Excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs), inhibitory postsynaptic potentials (IPSPs), and/or antidromic responses were elicited by stimulating homotopic sites in the contralateral cortical areas. Differential features of EPSPs related to latencies, amplitudes, and slopes were detected in closely located (50 μm or less) neurons recorded in succession along the same electrode track. In contrast to synchronous thalamocortical volleys that excited most neurons within a cortical column, stimuli applied to homotopic sites in the contralateral cortex activated neurons at restricted cortical depths. Median latencies of callosally evoked EPSPs were 1.5 to 4 ms in various cortical cell-classes. Fast-rhythmic-bursting neurons displayed EPSPs whose amplitudes were threefold larger, and latencies two- or threefold shorter, than those found in the three other cellular classes. Converging callosal and thalamic inputs were recorded in the same cortical neuron. EPSPs or IPSPs were elicited by stimulating foci spaced by <1 mm in the contralateral cortex. In the overwhelming majority of neurons, latencies of antidromic responses were between 1.2 and 3.1 ms; however, some callosal neurons had much longer latencies, ≤18.5 ms. Some neurons were excited monosynaptically through the callosal pathway and identified antidromically from appropriate thalamic nuclei, thus revealing a callosal-corticothalamic pathway. Data are discussed in relation to the commissural spread of fast and slow normal oscillations as well as paroxysmal activities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (10) ◽  
pp. 5460-5470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Na Luo ◽  
Jing Sui ◽  
Anees Abrol ◽  
Jiayu Chen ◽  
Jessica A Turner ◽  
...  

Abstract Brain structural networks have been shown to consistently organize in functionally meaningful architectures covering the entire brain. However, to what extent brain structural architectures match the intrinsic functional networks in different functional domains remains under explored. In this study, based on independent component analysis, we revealed 45 pairs of structural-functional (S-F) component maps, distributing across nine functional domains, in both a discovery cohort (n = 6005) and a replication cohort (UK Biobank, n = 9214), providing a well-match multimodal spatial map template for public use. Further network module analysis suggested that unimodal cortical areas (e.g., somatomotor and visual networks) indicate higher S-F coherence, while heteromodal association cortices, especially the frontoparietal network (FPN), exhibit more S-F divergence. Collectively, these results suggest that the expanding and maturing brain association cortex demonstrates a higher degree of changes compared with unimodal cortex, which may lead to higher interindividual variability and lower S-F coherence.


2012 ◽  
Vol 107 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer J. Siegel ◽  
Brian Kalmbach ◽  
Raymond A. Chitwood ◽  
Michael D. Mauk

We have addressed the source and nature of the persistent neural activity that bridges the stimulus-free gap between the conditioned stimulus (CS) and unconditioned stimulus (US) during trace eyelid conditioning. Previous work has demonstrated that this persistent activity is necessary for trace eyelid conditioning: CS-elicited activity in mossy fiber inputs to the cerebellum does not extend into the stimulus-free trace interval, which precludes the cerebellar learning that mediates conditioned response expression. In behaving rabbits we used in vivo recordings from a region of medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) that is necessary for trace eyelid conditioning to test the hypothesis that neurons there generate activity that persists beyond CS offset. These recordings revealed two patterns of activity during the trace interval that would enable cerebellar learning. Activity in some cells began during the tone CS and persisted to overlap with the US, whereas in other cells, activity began during the stimulus-free trace interval. Injection of anterograde tracers into this same region of mPFC revealed dense labeling in the pontine nuclei, where recordings also revealed tone-evoked persistent activity during trace conditioning. These data suggest a corticopontine pathway that provides an input to the cerebellum during trace conditioning trials that bridges the temporal gap between the CS and US to engage cerebellar learning. As such, trace eyelid conditioning represents a well-characterized and experimentally tractable system that can facilitate mechanistic analyses of cortical persistent activity and how it is used by downstream brain structures to influence behavior.


2007 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 351-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Osamu Hoshino

Auditory communication signals such as monkey calls are complex FM vocal sounds and in general induce action potentials in different timing in the primary auditory cortex. Delay line scheme is one of the effective ways for detecting such neuronal timing. However, the scheme is not straightforwardly applicable if the time intervals of signals are beyond the latency time of delay lines. In fact, monkey calls are often expressed in longer time intervals (hundreds of milliseconds to seconds) and are beyond the latency times observed in the brain (less than several hundreds of milliseconds). Here, we propose a cochleotopic map similar to that in vision known as a retinotopic map. We show that information about monkey calls could be mapped on a cochleotopic cortical network as spatiotemporal firing patterns of neurons, which can then be decomposed into simple (linearly sweeping) FM components and integrated into unified percepts by higher cortical networks. We suggest that the spatiotemporal conversion of auditory information may be essential for developing the cochleotopic map, which could serve as the foundation for later processing, or monkey call identification by higher cortical areas.


1998 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda L. Chao ◽  
Robert T. Knight

Neurological patients with focal lesions in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and age-matched control subjects were tested on an auditory version of the delayed-match-to-sample task employing environmental sounds. Subjects had to indicate whether a cue (S1) and a subsequent target sound (S2) were identical. On some trials, S1 and S2 were separated by a silent period of 5 sec. On other trials, the 5-sec delay between S1 and S2 was filled with irrelevant tone pips that served as distractors. Behaviorally, frontal patients were impaired by the presence of distractors. Electrophysiologically, patients generated enhanced primary auditory cortex-evoked responses to the tone pips, supporting a failure in inhibitory control of sensory processing after prefrontal damage. Intrahemispheric reductions of neural activity generated in the auditory association cortex and additional intrahemispheric reductions of attention-related frontal activity were also observed in the prefrontal patients. Together, these findings suggest that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is crucial for gating distracting information as well as maintaining distributed intrahemispheric neural activity during auditory working memory.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document