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Questioning the role of rebound firing in the cerebellum

Nature Neuroscience volume 11, pages 1256–1258 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

A key component of recent theories on cerebellar function is rebound firing in neurons of the deep cerebellar nuclei (DCN). Despite the robustness of this phenomenon in vitro, in vivo studies have provided little evidence for its prevalence. We found that intact mouse or rat DCN neurons rarely showed rebound firing under physiological conditions in vitro or in vivo. These observations necessitate a critical re-evaluation of recent cerebellar models.

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Figure 1: Rebound firing is not frequently observed in DCN neurons.
Figure 2: Extended hyperpolarization to GABA reversal potential infrequently results in rebound firing.
Figure 3: Rebound firing is not a common response in vivo.

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Acknowledgements

We thank members of the Khodakhah laboratory for helpful comments and discussion. This work was supported by grants from the US National Institutes of Health and the Human Frontier Science Program (NS050808, NS054251, GM53395, GM65473 and ND44564).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York 10461, USA.,

    Karina Alviña, Joy T Walter, Adam Kohn & Kamran Khodakhah

  2. Departmento de Ciencias Fisiologicas, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Av. Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins 340, Santiago, Chile

    Karina Alviña

  3. Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, Drexel University College of Medicine, 245 North 15th Street, Philadelphia, 19102, Pennsylvania, USA

    Graham Ellis-Davies

Authors
  1. Karina Alviña
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  2. Joy T Walter
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  4. Graham Ellis-Davies
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  5. Kamran Khodakhah
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kamran Khodakhah.

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Competing interests

Graham Ellis-Davies has filed a US patent for the synthesis of CNI-GABA.

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Supplementary Figures 1–4 and Supplementary Methods (PDF 275 kb)

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Alviña, K., Walter, J., Kohn, A. et al. Questioning the role of rebound firing in the cerebellum. Nat Neurosci 11, 1256–1258 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2195

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