The cerebellum has been implicated as a major player in producing temporal acuity. Theories of cerebellar timing typically emphasize the role of the cerebellar cortex while overlooking the role of the deep cerebellar nuclei (DCN) that provide the sole output of the cerebellum. Here we review anatomical and electrophysiological studies to shed light on the DCN's ability to support temporal pattern generation in the cerebellum. Specifically, we examine data on the structure of the DCN, the biophysical properties of DCN neurons and properties of the afferent systems to evaluate their contribution to DCN firing patterns. In addition, we manipulate one of the afferent structures, the inferior olive (IO), using systemic harmaline injection to test for a network effect on activity of single DCN neurons in freely moving animals. Harmaline induces a rhythmic firing pattern of short bursts on a quiescent background at about 8 Hz. Other neurons become quiescent for long periods (seconds to minutes). The observed patterns indicate that the major effect harmaline exerts on the DCN is carried indirectly by the inhibitory Purkinje cells (PCs) activated by the IO, rather than by direct olivary excitation. Moreover, we suggest that the DCN response profile is determined primarily by the number of concurrently active PCs, their firing rate and the level of synchrony occurring in their transitions between continuous firing and quiescence. We argue that DCN neurons faithfully transfer temporal patterns resulting from strong correlations in PCs state transitions, while largely ignoring the timing of simple spikes from individual PCs. Future research should aim at quantifying the contribution of PC state transitions to DCN activity, and the interplay between the different afferent systems that drive DCN activity.

Essential tremor, a common, debilitating motor disorder, is thought to be caused by cerebellar malfunction. It has been shown that rhythmic Purkinje cell firing is both necessary and sufficient to induce body tremor. During tremor, cerebellar nuclei (CN) cells also display oscillatory activity. This study examined whether rhythmic activity in the CN characterizes the occurrence of body tremor, or alternatively, whether aberrant bursting activity underlies body tremor. Cerebellar nuclei activity was chronically recorded and analyzed in freely moving and in harmaline treated rats. CN neurons displayed rhythmic activity in both conditions, but the number of oscillatory neurons and the relative oscillation time were significantly higher under harmaline. The dominant frequencies of the oscillations were broadly distributed under harmaline and the likelihood that two simultaneously recorded neurons would co-oscillate and their oscillation coherence were significantly lower. It is argued that these alterations rather than neuronal rhythmicity per se underlie harmaline-induced body tremor.

Understanding the relationship between the local field potential (LFP) and single neurons is essential if we are to understand network dynamics and the entrainment of neuronal activity. Here, we investigated the interaction between the LFP and single neurons recorded in the rat cerebellar nuclei (CN), which are part of the sensorimotor network, in freely moving rats. During movement, the LFP displayed persistent oscillations in the theta band frequency whereas CN neurons displayed intermittent oscillations in the same frequency band contingent on the instantaneous LFP power; the neurons oscillated primarily when the concurrent LFP power was either high or low. Quantification of the relative instantaneous frequency and phase locking showed that CN neurons exhibited phase locked rhythmic activity at a frequency similar to that of the LFP or at a shifted frequency during high and low LFP power, respectively. We suggest that this nonlinear interaction between cerebellar neurons and the LFP power, which occurs solely during movement, contributes to the shaping of cerebellar output patterns.

Neuronal oscillations occur in health and disease; however, their characteristics can differ across conditions. During voluntary movement in freely moving rats, cerebellar nuclei (CN) neurons display intermittent but coherent oscillations in the theta frequency band (4–12 Hz). However, in the rat harmaline model of essential tremor, a disorder attributed to cerebellar malfunction, CN neurons display aberrant oscillations concomitantly with the emergence of body tremor. To identify the oscillation features that may underlie the emergence of body tremor, we analyzed neuronal activity recorded chronically from the rat CN under three conditions: in freely behaving animals, in harmaline-treated animals, and during chemical suppression of the harmaline-induced body tremor. Suppression of body tremor did not restore single neuron firing characteristics such as firing rate, the global and local coefficients of variation, the likelihood of a neuron to fire in bursts or their tendency to oscillate at a variety of dominant frequencies. Similarly, the fraction of simultaneously recorded neuronal pairs oscillating at a similar dominant frequency (<1 Hz deviation) and the mean frequency deviation within pairs remained similar to the harmaline condition. Moreover, the likelihood that pairs of CN neurons would co-oscillate was not only significantly lower than that measured in freely moving animals, but was significantly worse than chance. By contrast, the chemical suppression of body tremor fully restored pairwise neuronal coherence; that is, unlike in the harmaline condition, pairs of neurons that oscillated at the same time and frequency displayed high coherence, as in the controls. We suggest that oscillation coherence in CN neurons is essential for the execution of smooth movement and its loss likely underlies the emergence of body tremor.