Purkinje cell stripes and long-term depression at the parallel fiber-Purkinje cell synapse.

Richard Hawkes

doi:10.3389/fnsys.2014.00041

Abstract

The cerebellar cortex comprises a stereotyped array of transverse zones and parasagittal stripes, built around multiple Purkinje cell subtypes, which is highly conserved across birds and mammals. This architecture is revealed in the restricted expression patterns of numerous molecules, in the terminal fields of the afferent projections, in the distribution of interneurons, and in the functional organization. This review provides an overview of cerebellar architecture with an emphasis on attempts to relate molecular architecture to the expression of long-term depression (LTD) at the parallel fiber-Purkinje cell (pf-PC) synapse.

Highlights

SYSTEMS NEUROSCIENCEPurkinje cell stripes and long-term depression at the parallel fiber-Purkinje cell synapse
The general hypothesis explored in this review is that the elaborate molecular architecture of the cerebellar cortex has its counterpart in the compartmentation of function
The data show two things: first, long-term depression (LTD) is manifested differently in different stripes; and secondly, some of the molecules implicated in the LTD signaling pathways show expression patterns restricted to stripes, ranging from convincing to intriguing, to being of marginal significance at best (e.g., IP3R; IGF-1; PKCδ: Table 1)

Summary

SYSTEMS NEUROSCIENCE

Purkinje cell stripes and long-term depression at the parallel fiber-Purkinje cell synapse. The cerebellar cortex comprises a stereotyped array of transverse zones and parasagittal stripes, built around multiple Purkinje cell subtypes, which is highly conserved across birds and mammals This architecture is revealed in the restricted expression patterns of numerous molecules, in the terminal fields of the afferent projections, in the distribution of interneurons, and in the functional organization. Many forms of synaptic plasticity have been identified in the cerebellar cortex (e.g., Hansel et al, 2001)—a network property that De Zeeuw et al have called “distributed synergistic plasticity” (Gao et al, 2012) Both long-term depression (LTD) and long-term potentiation (LTP) have been identified, and these are expressed at multiple synapses—parallel-fiber to Purkinje cell, mossy fiber to granule cell, inhibitory interneuron to Purkinje cell (“rebound potentiation”: e.g., Tanaka et al, 2013) etc. To set the stage the review begins with a brief overview of the patterning of the main players—Purkinje cells, climbing and mossy fiber afferents, and granule cells

OVERVIEW OF ZONE AND STRIPE ARCHITECTURE

CONCLUSIONS