Cerebellum: from Fundamentals to Translational Approaches. The Seventh International Symposium of the Society for Research on the Cerebellum

Abstract

In terms of cerebellar research and ataxiology, a most fascinating period is currently going on. Numerous academic groups are now focusing their innovative research on the so-called little brain, hidden at the bottom of our brain. Indeed, its unique anatomical features make the cerebellum a wonderful window to address major questions about the central nervous system. The seventh international symposium of the SRC was held in Brussels at the Palace of Academies from May 8 to 10, 2015. The main goal of this dense symposium was to gather in a 2-day meeting senior researchers of exceptional scientific quality and talented junior scientists from all over the world working in the multidisciplinary field of cerebellar research. Fundamental and clinical researchers shared the latest knowledge and developments in this rapidly growing field. New ideas, addressed in a variety of inspiring talks, provoked a vivid debate. Advances in genetics, development, electrophysiology, neuroimaging, neurocognition and affect, as well as in the cerebellar ataxias and the controversies on the roles and functions of the cerebellum were presented. The Ferdinando Rossi lecture and the key-note lecture were delivered by Jan Voogd and Chris De Zeeuw, respectively. Contacts between researchers of different neuroscientific disciplines established a robust basis for novel trends and promising new cooperations between researchers and their centers spread all over the world.

Predicting explorative motor learning using decision-making and motor noise

“…Without the cerebellum, predicted action outcomes may be poorly represented, or even unknown, and so linking them to reward values would be more difficult. This increased (motor) noise in predicting movement outcomes could lead to greater uncertainty with respect to reward based predictions and thus a reduced ability, or reluctance, to adapt behaviour [57, 58]. Although we are not suggesting that participants in our study, who displayed increased motor noise had a damaged cerebellum, such a neural mechanism could readily explain our results.…”

Selective Optogenetic Control of Purkinje Cells in Monkey Cerebellum

“…In transgenic animals, cell type-specific targeting is relatively straightforward and requires genetic modifications early in development (for a review, see Sługocka et al, 2016). In non-transgenic animals, however, targeting is difficult.…”

Neural substrates of motor and cognitive dysfunctions in SCA2 patients: A network based statistics analysis

“…These connections are known to be strictly controlateral and to be spatially and functionally organized in distinct parallel loops (Middleton and Strick, 1994, Ramnani, 2006), thus contributing to distinct functional networks (Allen et al, 2005, Habas et al, 2009, De Vico Fallani et al, 2016) clearly related to different functional processes. Within this complex neural system the role of the cerebellum is to integrate multisensory information and then send them back to cerebral cortex (Leggio and Molinari, 2015).…”