Even the simplest movements require us to precisely coordinate the movement of multiple body parts in space and time. The cerebellum is critical for motor coordination and learning, but we still don't understand how cerebellar outputs enable complex coordinated movement. In this talk, I will describe our efforts to understand cerebellar circuit contributions to coordinated locomotion and learning. We have taken a behavior-centric approach to this problem, developing an automated, markerless 3D tracking system (LocoMouse) to establish a quantitative framework for mouse locomotion (Machado et al., eLife 2015, 2020). These studies reveal specific, cerebellum-dependent features of locomotor coordination that suggest that cerebellar ataxia results from an inability to predict the consequences of movements across the body. We are further investigating this idea by studying neural circuit mechanisms of locomotor learning, in which mice adapt their locomotor patterns to achieve a more symmetrical gait while walking on a split-belt treadmill (Darmohray et al., Neuron 2019). Finally, I will present recent electrophysiological recordings from Purkinje cells in locomoting mice, which are beginning to provide surprising insights into how cerebellar circuits ensure accurate and coordinated complex, whole-body behaviors.

Those who wish to meet the speaker should contact Qianyun Zhang (Sawtell Lab).


The Columbia Neuroscience Seminar series is a collaborative effort of Columbia's Zuckerman Institute, the Department of Neuroscience, the Doctoral Program in Neurobiology and Behavior and the Columbia Translational Neuroscience Initiative, and with support from the Kavli Institute for Brain Science.