School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710062, China
This work was supported by grants from the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (GK202103132) and Scientific Research Foundation of Shaanxi Normal University Grant (1110011181)
Cerebellum, as a classical main brain region of motor control, has been found in many recent studies to be also associated with autism, schizophrenia and reward-related cognitive function and social behavior, therefore, the study of cerebellum has received increasing attention. Studying the neural mechanism of cerebellar participation in movement learning and motion control is one of the most important subjects in neuroscience. Muscular coordination and biokinematic features of eye movement are simpler than the other types of movements, which makes it an ideal model to study the role of cerebellum in movement control. As one of the main ways to collect information, vision is important to our daily life. The 3 main types of eye movements (saccade, smooth-pursuit eye movement (SPEM) and fixation) that are used to ensure clear vision must be precisely controlled by the cerebellum to ensure that stationary or moving objects remain in the center of the fovea. Abnormal eye movement could lead to visual impairment and is used as a clinical indicator for diagnoses of a variety of diseases. Therefore, the study of eye movement control has important medical and biological significance. Although there is a basic understanding of the role of cerebellar cortex and caudal fastigial nuclei in modulating eye movements, the exact neural mechanism of encoding kinematics of eye movements, especially the neural mechanism underlying the control of SPEM in caudal fastigial remains unclear. This review discusses the main open questions in cerebellar researches regarding motor control, cognition and the potential application value of studying cerebellum, summarizes the relevant literatures on cerebellar implication in eye movement control in recent years, and discusses our recent findings using single-cell electrophysiological recordings and mathematical linear regression models, revealing that the neurons in cerebellar cortex and nuclei are both involved in the precise control of different types of eye movements, whereas with different principles for the encoding of different kinematic parameters for different types of eye movements. Moreover, based on previous findings by detecting microsaccades, we discuss possible neural mechanism underlying the involvement of cerebellar nuclei in regulating visual fixation. In addition, this review discusses the new opportunities brought by recent technological advances in neuroscience, and provides new ideas for future cerebellum-related research and the optimization of brain-controlled prosthesis, potentially by improving the control of kinematic parameters separately.
SUN Zong-Peng. Neural Coding Mechanisms Underlying Cerebellar Control of Different Types of Eye Movements:From The Cerebellar Cortex to Cerebellar Nuclei[J]. Progress in Biochemistry and Biophysics,2022,49(7):1251-1263
Copy® 2025 All Rights Reserved ICP:京ICP备05023138号-1 京公网安备 11010502031771号