Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Cerebellar long-term depression as investigated in a cell culture preparation
- 2 Cellular mechanisms of long-term depression in the cerebellum
- 3 Long-lasting potentiation of GABAergic inhibitory synaptic transmission in cerebellar Purkinje cells: Its properties and possible mechanisms
- 4 Nitric oxide and synaptic plasticity: NO news from the cerebellum
- 5 Models of the cerebellum and motor learning
- 6 On climbing fiber signals and their consequence(s)
- 7 Does the cerebellum learn strategies for the optimal time-varying control of joint stiffness?
- 8 On the specific role of the cerebellum in motor learning and cognition: Clues from PET activation and lesion studies in man
- Open Peer Commentary and Authors' Responses
- References
- Index
8 - On the specific role of the cerebellum in motor learning and cognition: Clues from PET activation and lesion studies in man
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Cerebellar long-term depression as investigated in a cell culture preparation
- 2 Cellular mechanisms of long-term depression in the cerebellum
- 3 Long-lasting potentiation of GABAergic inhibitory synaptic transmission in cerebellar Purkinje cells: Its properties and possible mechanisms
- 4 Nitric oxide and synaptic plasticity: NO news from the cerebellum
- 5 Models of the cerebellum and motor learning
- 6 On climbing fiber signals and their consequence(s)
- 7 Does the cerebellum learn strategies for the optimal time-varying control of joint stiffness?
- 8 On the specific role of the cerebellum in motor learning and cognition: Clues from PET activation and lesion studies in man
- Open Peer Commentary and Authors' Responses
- References
- Index
Summary
Abstract: Brindley proposed that we initially generate movements “consciously,” under higher cerebral control. As the movement is practiced, the cerebellum learns to link within itself the context in which the movement is made to the lower level movement generators. Marr and Albus proposed that the linkage is established by a special input from the inferior olive, which plays upon an input-output element within the cerebellum during the period of the learning. When the linkage is complete, the occurrence of the context (represented by a certain input to the cerebellum) will trigger (through the cerebellum) the appropriate motor response. The “learned” movement is distinguished from the “unlearned” conscious movement by its now being automatic, rapid, and stereotyped. The idea is still controversial, but has been supported by a variety of animal studies and, as reviewed here, is consistent with the results of a number of human PET and ablation studies. I have added to the idea of context-response linkage what I think is another important variable: novel combinations of downstream elements. With regard to the motor system and the muscles, this could explain how varied combinations of muscles may become active in precise time-amplitude specifications so as to produce coordinated movements appropriate to specific contexts. In this target article, I have further extended this idea to the premotor parts of the brain and their role in cognition.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Motor Learning and Synaptic Plasticity in the Cerebellum , pp. 73 - 94Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1997
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