How does the cerebellum work during cognitive and emotional tasks?

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K08186
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: General physiology
• Research Institution: St. Marianna University School of Medicine (2016-2017); Keio University (2015)
• Principal Investigator: Kohda Kazuhisa 聖マリアンナ医科大学, 医学部, 教授 (40334388)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): SUZUKI Kunimichi 慶應義塾大学, 医学部, 特任助教 (10713703) ; TANAKA Kenji 慶應義塾大学, 医学部, 特任准教授 (30329700)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 小脳 / 恐怖条件付け / Cbln1

Outline of Final Research Achievements

It has been reported that the cerebellum is involved in higher brain function, such as cognition and emotion, as well as motor coordination and motor learning. We investigated whether the cerebellum worked during fear conditioning using Cbln1-null mice. It is already known that Cbln1 is predominantly expressed in cerebellar granule cells. Our detailed studies showed its weak, but significant expression in some forebrain regions. To differentiate the roles of cerebellar Cbln1 from those in the forebrain, we generated forebrain-specific (FB) and cerebellum-specific (CB) Cbln1-null mice. While the FB mice indicated reduced freezing in cued and contextual fear conditioning, only cued fear conditioning was blunted in the CB mice. The results suggest that cerebellar circuits that include parallel fiber-Purkinje cell synapses should be involved in cued fear conditioning.

Free Research Field

神経科学