4.7 Article

Stellate cell computational modeling predicts signal filtering in the molecular layer circuit of cerebellum

Journal

SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
Volume 11, Issue 1, Pages -

Publisher

NATURE RESEARCH
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-83209-w

Keywords

-

Funding

  1. European Union's Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation [650003]
  2. HBP Brain Simulation Platform - European Union's Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation [785907]
  3. EBRAINS research infrastructure from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation [945539]
  4. MNL Project Local Neuronal Microcircuitsof the Centro Fermi (Rome, Italy)
  5. PRACE [03]

Ask authors/readers for more resources

The study reveals that cerebellar stellate cells exhibit intrinsic pacemaking and characteristic responses, acting as delay-high-pass filters by inhibiting Purkinje cell responses to parallel fiber stimulation. Reciprocal inhibitory connections between stellate cells maintained control over Purkinje cell discharge only at very high frequencies. These findings predict a new role for stellate cells in providing molecular layer with filtering properties and regulating Purkinje cell gain.
The functional properties of cerebellar stellate cells and the way they regulate molecular layer activity are still unclear. We have measured stellate cells electroresponsiveness and their activation by parallel fiber bursts. Stellate cells showed intrinsic pacemaking, along with characteristic responses to depolarization and hyperpolarization, and showed a marked short-term facilitation during repetitive parallel fiber transmission. Spikes were emitted after a lag and only at high frequency, making stellate cells to operate as delay-high-pass filters. A detailed computational model summarizing these physiological properties allowed to explore different functional configurations of the parallel fiber-stellate cell-Purkinje cell circuit. Simulations showed that, following parallel fiber stimulation, Purkinje cells almost linearly increased their response with input frequency, but such an increase was inhibited by stellate cells, which leveled the Purkinje cell gain curve to its 4 Hz value. When reciprocal inhibitory connections between stellate cells were activated, the control of stellate cells over Purkinje cell discharge was maintained only at very high frequencies. These simulations thus predict a new role for stellate cells, which could endow the molecular layer with low-pass and band-pass filtering properties regulating Purkinje cell gain and, along with this, also burst delay and the burst-pause responses pattern.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.7
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available