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Three-Dimensional Heterogeneity of Cerebellar Interposed Nucleus-Recipient Zones in the Thalamic Nuclei

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Abstract

The cerebellum is conceptualized as a processor of complex movements and is also endowed with roles in cognitive and emotional behaviors. Although the axons of deep cerebellar nuclei are known to project to primary thalamic nuclei, macroscopic investigation of the characteristics of these projections, such as the spatial distribution of recipient zones, is lacking. Here, we studied the output of the cerebellar interposed nucleus (IpN) to the ventrolateral (VL) and centrolateral (CL) thalamic nuclei using electrophysiological recording in vivo and trans-synaptic viral tracing. We found that IpN stimulation induced mono-synaptic evoked potentials (EPs) in the VL but not the CL region. Furthermore, both the EPs induced by the IpN and the innervation of IpN projections displayed substantial heterogeneity across the VL region in three-dimensional space. These findings indicate that the recipient zones of IpN inputs vary between and within thalamic nuclei and may differentially control thalamo-cortical networks.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Core Facilities of Zhejiang University Institute of Neuroscience for technical assistance and Dr. IC Bruce for reading this manuscript. This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81625006, 31970923, and 31820103005) and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2019M662025).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology and Department of Neurology of the First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Kuang-Yi Ma, Xin-Yu Cai, Xin-Tai Wang, Wan-Meng Huang & Ying Shen

  2. Key Laboratory of Biomedical Engineering of the Ministry of Education, College of Biomedical Engineering and Instrumentation Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310013, China

    Zhao-Xiang Wang & Zhou-Yan Feng

  3. Department of Neurology and Research Center of Neurology in the Second Affiliated Hospital, and Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Zhi-Ying Wu

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  1. Kuang-Yi Ma
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  2. Xin-Yu Cai
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Correspondence to Ying Shen.

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Ma, KY., Cai, XY., Wang, XT. et al. Three-Dimensional Heterogeneity of Cerebellar Interposed Nucleus-Recipient Zones in the Thalamic Nuclei. Neurosci. Bull. 37, 1529–1541 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12264-021-00780-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12264-021-00780-y

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