Synchronization of Purkinje Cell Pairs Along the Parallel Fiber Axis : A Modeling Study

Spontaneous synchronization of Purkinje cell pairs in the cerebellar cortex is implicitly predicted by many theories of cerebellar function (e.g.the beam theory of Eccles [19]). We show that monosynaptic parallel fiber excitation is not able to synchronize model Purkinje cell pairs, unless unrealistically high percentages of input are shared (80%). On the other hand, synchrony is already significant when only a realistic amount, 10%, of the inhibitory input is shared. Thus, inhibitory interneurons could synchronize Purkinje cell pairs through a monosynaptic pathway. Still, parallel fibers could synchronize Purkinje cell pairs through a disynaptic pathway over inhibitory inter-neurons