Balancing Long-term Plasticity Mechanisms at the Purkinje Cell in the Olivocerebellar System
T. Hoedemakers (TU Delft - Mechanical Engineering)
Mario Negrello – Mentor (Erasmus MC)
Luka Peternel – Mentor (TU Delft - Human-Robot Interaction)
D. Abbink – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Human-Robot Interaction)
M. Jafarian – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Team Bart De Schutter)
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Abstract
The olivocerebellar system plays a crucial role in control of movements of the human body in terms of coordination, precision and timing. Long-term plasticity is directly linked to motor learning and control. In this research, we developed a phenomenological model of the olivocerebellar system with balancing of long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD) at the parallel fiber-Purkinje cell (PF-PC) synapse. By ranging the PF input over frequencies, we found that PCs can select frequencies in a highly non-linear manner. There is a sharp contrast in synaptic weight change between neighbouring frequencies, which is caused by the temporal spiking property of the inferior olive (IO) cell. This research found a novel signal processing capability of the PC.