Sensorimotor maps can be dynamically calibrated using an adaptive-filter model of the cerebellum

PLoS Comput Biol. 2019 Jul 11;15(7):e1007187. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007187. eCollection 2019 Jul.

Abstract

Substantial experimental evidence suggests the cerebellum is involved in calibrating sensorimotor maps. Consistent with this involvement is the well-known, but little understood, massive cerebellar projection to maps in the superior colliculus. Map calibration would be a significant new role for the cerebellum given the ubiquity of map representations in the brain, but how it could perform such a task is unclear. Here we investigated a dynamic method for map calibration, based on electrophysiological recordings from the superior colliculus, that used a standard adaptive-filter cerebellar model. The method proved effective for complex distortions of both unimodal and bimodal maps, and also for predictive map-based tracking of moving targets. These results provide the first computational evidence for a novel role for the cerebellum in dynamic sensorimotor map calibration, of potential importance for coordinate alignment during ongoing motor control, and for map calibration in future biomimetic systems. This computational evidence also provides testable experimental predictions concerning the role of the connections between cerebellum and superior colliculus in previously observed dynamic coordinate transformations.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Brain Mapping / methods*
  • Brain Mapping / statistics & numerical data
  • Calibration
  • Cerebellum / anatomy & histology*
  • Cerebellum / physiology*
  • Computational Biology
  • Models, Neurological
  • Motor Skills / physiology
  • Sensation / physiology
  • Sensorimotor Cortex / anatomy & histology
  • Sensorimotor Cortex / physiology
  • Sensory Gating / physiology
  • Superior Colliculi / anatomy & histology
  • Superior Colliculi / physiology

Grants and funding

Preparation of this article was supported by a grant from the EPSRC (EP/I032533/1). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.