The olivo-cerebellar system and its relationship to survival circuits

How does the cerebellum, the brain's largest sensorimotor structure, contribute to complex behaviors essential to survival? While we know much about the role of limbic and closely associated brainstem structures in relation to a variety of emotional, sensory, or motivational stimuli, we know ve...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inFrontiers in neural circuits Vol. 7; p. 72
Main Authors Watson, Thomas C, Koutsikou, Stella, Cerminara, Nadia L, Flavell, Charlotte R, Crook, Jonathan J, Lumb, Bridget M, Apps, Richard
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Switzerland Frontiers Research Foundation 2013
Frontiers Media S.A
Subjects
Adaptation, Psychological - physiology
Animals
Behavior
Brain stem
Cerebellum
Cerebellum - physiology
Circuits
Coping
Emotional behavior
Emotions
Humans
inferior olive
Mesencephalon
modules
Motor task performance
Nerve Net - physiology
Neuroscience
Olivary Nucleus - physiology
Pain
Periaqueductal Gray - physiology
periaqueductal grey
Sensorimotor system
Sensory perception
Survival
Transcranial magnetic stimulation
inferior olive
cerebellum
modules
periaqueductal gray
survival
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:How does the cerebellum, the brain's largest sensorimotor structure, contribute to complex behaviors essential to survival? While we know much about the role of limbic and closely associated brainstem structures in relation to a variety of emotional, sensory, or motivational stimuli, we know very little about how these circuits interact with the cerebellum to generate appropriate patterns of behavioral response. Here we focus on evidence suggesting that the olivo-cerebellar system may link to survival networks via interactions with the midbrain periaqueductal gray, a structure with a well known role in expression of survival responses. As a result of this interaction we argue that, in addition to important roles in motor control, the inferior olive, and related olivo-cortico-nuclear circuits, should be considered part of a larger network of brain structures involved in coordinating survival behavior through the selective relaying of "teaching signals" arising from higher centers associated with emotional behaviors.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-3
content type line 23
ObjectType-Review-1
Edited by: Egidio D‘Angelo, University of Pavia, Italy
Edited by: Yosef Yarom, Hebrew University, Israel; Ilker Ozden, Brown University, USA
ISSN:1662-5110
1662-5110
DOI:10.3389/fncir.2013.00072