The cerebellum is emerging as a powerful regulator of cognitive and affective processing and memory in both humans and animals and has been implicated in affective disorders. How the cerebellum supports affective function remains poorly understood. The short-latency (just a few milliseconds) functional connections that were identified between the cerebellum and amygdala—a structure crucial for the processing of emotion and valence—more than four decades ago raise the exciting, yet untested, possibility that a cerebellum-amygdala pathway communicates information important for emotion. The major hurdle in rigorously testing this possibility is the lack of knowledge about the anatomy and functional connectivity of this pathway. Our initial anatomical tracing studies in mice excluded the existence of a direct monosynaptic connection between the cerebellum and amygdala. Using transneuronal tracing techniques, we have identified a novel disynaptic circuit between the cerebellar output nuclei and the basolateral amygdala. This circuit recruits the understudied intralaminar thalamus as a node. Using ex vivo optophysiology and super-resolution microscopy, we provide the first evidence for the functionality of the pathway, thus offering a missing mechanistic link between the cerebellum and amygdala. This discovery provides a connectivity blueprint between the cerebellum and a key structure of the limbic system. As such, it is the requisite first step toward obtaining new knowledge about cerebellar function in emotion, thus fundamentally advancing understanding of the neurobiology of emotion, which is perturbed in mental and autism spectrum disorders.

The hippocampus can be divided into distinct segments that make unique contributions to learning and memory. The dorsal segment supports cognitive processes like spatial learning and navigation while the ventral hippocampus regulates emotional behaviors related to fear, anxiety and reward. In the current study, we determined how pyramidal cells in ventral CA1 respond to spatial cues and aversive stimulation during a context fear conditioning task. We also examined the effects of high and low frequency stimulation of these neurons on defensive behavior. Similar to previous work in the dorsal hippocampus, we found that cells in ventral CA1 expressed high-levels of c-Fos in response to a novel spatial environment. Surprisingly, however, the number of activated neurons did not increase when the environment was paired with footshock. This was true even in the subpopulation of ventral CA1 pyramidal cells that send direct projections to the amygdala. When these cells were stimulated at high-frequencies (20 Hz) we observed feedforward inhibition of basal amygdala neurons and impaired expression of context fear. In contrast, low-frequency stimulation (4 Hz) did not inhibit principal cells in the basal amygdala and produced an increase in fear generalization. Similar results have been reported in dorsal CA1. Therefore, despite clear differences between the dorsal and ventral hippocampus, CA1 neurons in each segment appear to make similar contributions to context fear conditioning.

Traditionally viewed as a motor control center, the cerebellum (CB) is now recognized as an integral part of a broad, long-range brain network that serves limbic functions and motivates behavior. This diverse CB functionality has been at least partly attributed to the multiplicity of its outputs. However, relatively little attention has been paid to CB connectivity with subcortical limbic structures, and nothing is known about how the CB connects to the nucleus accumbens (NAc), a complex striatal region with which the CB shares functionality in motivated behaviors. Here, we report findings from in vivo electrophysiological experiments that investigated the functional connectivity between CB and NAc. We found that electrical microstimulation of deep cerebellar nuclei (DCN) modulates NAc spiking activity. This modulation differed in terms of directionality (excitatory vs. inhibitory) and temporal characteristics, in a manner that depends on NAc subregions: in the medial shell of NAc (NAcMed), slow inhibitory responses prevailed over excitatory ones, whereas the proportion of fast excitatory responses was greater in the NAc core (NAcCore) compared to NAcMed. Slow inhibitory modulation of NAcCore was also observed but it required stronger CB inputs compared to NAcMed. Finally, we observed shorter onset latencies for excitatory responses in NAcCore than in NAcMed, which argues for differential connectivity. If different pathways provide signal to each subregion, the divergence likely occurs downstream of the CB because we did not find any response-type clustering within DCN. Because there are no direct monosynaptic connections between CB and NAc, we performed viral tracing experiments to chart disynaptic pathways that could potentially mediate the newly discovered CB-NAc communication. We identified two anatomical pathways that recruit the ventral tegmental area and intralaminar thalamus as nodes. These pathways and the functional connectivity they support could underlie CB’s role in motivated behaviors.

AbstractThe hippocampus can be divided into distinct segments that make unique contributions to learning and memory. The dorsal hippocampus supports cognitive processes like spatial learning and navigation while the ventral hippocampus regulates emotional behaviors related to fear, anxiety and reward. In the current study, we determined how pyramidal cells in ventral CA1 respond to spatial cues and aversive stimulation during a context fear conditioning task. We also examined the effects of high and low frequency stimulation of these neurons on defensive behaviors. Similar to previous work in the dorsal hippocampus, we found that cells in ventral CA1 expressed high-levels of c-Fos in response to a novel spatial environment. Surprisingly, however, the number of activated neurons did not increase when the environment was subsequently paired with footshock. This was true even in the subpopulation of ventral CA1 pyramidal cells that send direct projections to the amygdala. When these cells were stimulated at high-frequencies (20-Hz), we observed feedforward inhibition of basal amygdala neurons and impaired expression of context fear. In contrast, low-frequency stimulation (4-Hz) did not inhibit principal cells in the amygdala and produced a slight increase in fear generalization. Similar results have been reported in dorsal CA1. Therefore, despite the clear differences between the dorsal and ventral hippocampus, CA1 neurons in each segment appear to make similar contributions to context fear conditioning.

The cerebellum is emerging as a powerful regulator of cognitive and affective processing and memory in both humans and animals and has been implicated in affective disorders. How the cerebellum supports affective function remains poorly understood. The short-latency (just a few ms) functional connections that were identified between the cerebellum and amygdala -a structure crucial for the processing of emotion and valence- more than 4 decades ago raise the exciting, yet untested, possibility that a cerebellum-amygdala pathway communicates information important for emotion. The major hurdle in rigorously testing this possibility is the lack of knowledge about the anatomy and functional connectivity of this pathway. Our initial anatomical tracing studies in mice excluded the existence of a direct monosynaptic pathway between cerebellum and amygdala. Using transsynaptic tracing techniques, we have identified a novel disynaptic pathway that connects the cerebellar output nuclei to the basolateral amygdala. This pathway recruits the understudied intralaminar thalamus as a node. Using ex vivo optophysiology and super-resolution microscopy, we provide the first evidence for the functionality of the pathway, thus offering a missing mechanistic link between the cerebellum and amygdala. This discovery provides a connectivity blueprint between the cerebellum and a key structure of the limbic system. As such, it is the requisite first step toward obtaining new knowledge about cerebellar function in emotion, thus fundamentally advancing understanding of the neurobiology of emotion, which is perturbed in mental and autism spectrum disorders.

Although the cerebellum is now recognized as part of a long-range brain network that serves limbic functions and motivated behavior, knowledge of cerebello-limbic connectivity is limited, and nothing is known about how the cerebellum connects functionally to the nucleus accumbens (NAc). Here, we report that stimulation of cerebellar nuclei in mice of both sexes modulates spiking activity in both NAc core and medial shell with fast excitation and slower, less synchronized inhibition. Fast responses would be well poised to support rapid communication of information critical to the control of motivated behavior, whereas slower responses may be suggestive of a regulatory function, such as gain control. Tracing experiments to chart cerebellar nuclei-NAc pathways identified disynaptic pathways that recruit the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and intralaminar thalamus (Centromedial and Parafascicular nuclei) as intermediary nodes. Optogenetic activation of cerebellar axons in each of these nodes was sufficient to evoke responses in both NAc core and medial shell, albeit with distinct, node-dependent properties. These pathways and the functional connectivity they support could underlie the role of the cerebellum in motivated behavior.

Although the cerebellum is now recognized as part of a long-range brain network that serves limbic functions and motivated behavior, knowledge of cerebello-limbic connectivity is limited, and nothing is known about how the cerebellum connects functionally to the nucleus accumbens (NAc). Here, we report that stimulation of cerebellar nuclei in mice of both sexes modulates spiking activity in both NAc core and medial shell with fast excitation and slower, less synchronized inhibition. Fast responses would be well poised to support rapid communication of information critical to the control of motivated behavior, whereas slower responses may be suggestive of a regulatory function, such as gain control. Tracing experiments to chart cerebellar nuclei-NAc pathways identified disynaptic pathways that recruit the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and intralaminar thalamus (Centromedial and Parafascicular nuclei) as intermediary nodes. Optogenetic activation of cerebellar axons in each of these nodes was sufficient to evoke responses in both NAc core and medial shell, albeit with distinct, node-dependent properties. These pathways and the functional connectivity they support could underlie the role of the cerebellum in motivated behavior.