Jean Laurens, Dora E. Angelaki. Simple spike dynamics of Purkinje cells in the macaque vestibulo-cerebellum during passive whole-body self-motion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jan 2020, 201915873; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1915873117

Significance
“This study characterizes the response dynamics of two types of Purkinje neurons in the vestibulo-cerebellum that are known to encode head motion. We find that one type encodes tilt velocity, whereas the other encodes linear acceleration. We compare these results to current theories that posit that the cerebellum implements internal models for sensing head motion and discuss the role of tilt- and translation-selective cells in the theoretical sequence of computations.”

Abstract
“Theories of cerebellar functions posit that the cerebellum implements internal models for online correction of motor actions and sensory estimation. As an example of such computations, an internal model resolves a sensory ambiguity where the peripheral otolith organs in the inner ear sense both head tilts and translations. Here we exploit the response dynamics of two functionally coupled Purkinje cell types in the vestibular part of the caudal vermis (lobules IX and X) to understand their role in this computation. We find that one population encodes tilt velocity, whereas the other, translation-selective, population encodes linear acceleration. We predict that an intermediate neuronal type should temporally integrate the output of tilt-selective cells into a tilt position signal.”

Jean Laurens, Dora E. Angelaki. Simple spike dynamics of Purkinje cells in the macaque vestibulo-cerebellum during passive whole-body self-motion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jan 2020, 201915873; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1915873117