Complex spikes perturb movements and reveal the sensorimotor map of Purkinje cells

Abstract

Computations that are performed by the cerebellar cortex are transmitted via simple spikes of Purkinje cells (P-cells) to downstream structures, but because P-cells are many synapses away from muscles, we do not know the relationship between modulation of simple spikes and control of behavior. Here, we recorded the spiking activities of hundreds of P-cells in the oculomotor vermis of marmosets during saccadic eye movements and found that following the presentation of a visual stimulus, the olivary input to a P-cell coarsely described the direction and amplitude of the visual stimulus as well as the upcoming movement. Occasionally, the complex spike occurred just before saccade onset, suppressing the P-cell's simple spikes and disrupting its output during that saccade. Remarkably, this brief suppression of simple spikes altered the saccade's trajectory by pulling the eyes toward the part of the visual space that was preferentially encoded by the olivary input to that P-cell. Thus, there is an alignment between the sensory space encoded by the complex spikes and the behavior conveyed by the simple spikes: a reduction in simple spikes is a signal to bias the ongoing movement toward the part of the sensory space preferentially encoded by the olivary input to that P-cell.