Glutamatergic Cerebellar Neurons Differentially Contribute to the Acquisition of Motor and Social Behaviors

Authors

Meike E van der Heijden
Alejandro G Rey Hipolito
Linda H Kim
Dominic J Kizek
Ross M Perez
Tao Lin
Roy V Sillitoe

Publication Date

5-15-2023

Journal

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-023-38475-9

PMID

37188723

PMCID

PMC10185563

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

5-15-2023

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Post-print

Published Open-Access

yes

Keywords

Mice, Animals, Cerebellum, Neurons, Interneurons, Synaptic Transmission, Social Behavior, Social behaviour, Cerebellum

Abstract

Insults to the developing cerebellum can cause motor, language, and social deficits. Here, we investigate whether developmental insults to different cerebellar neurons constrain the ability to acquire cerebellar-dependent behaviors. We perturb cerebellar cortical or nuclei neuron function by eliminating glutamatergic neurotransmission during development, and then we measure motor and social behaviors in early postnatal and adult mice. Altering cortical and nuclei neurons impacts postnatal motor control and social vocalizations. Normalizing neurotransmission in cortical neurons but not nuclei neurons restores social behaviors while the motor deficits remain impaired in adults. In contrast, manipulating only a subset of nuclei neurons leaves social behaviors intact but leads to early motor deficits that are restored by adulthood. Our data uncover that glutamatergic neurotransmission from cerebellar cortical and nuclei neurons differentially control the acquisition of motor and social behaviors, and that the brain can compensate for some but not all perturbations to the developing cerebellum.