A widespread group of cerebellar projections form monosynaptic excitatory synapses with neurons throughout the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc). These projections contain information associated with movement and reward and can rapidly increase SNc neuron activity, and thereby basal ganglia dopamine levels, which contribute to movement initiation, vigor and reward processing.
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References
Yoshida, J. et al. Cerebellar contributions to the basal ganglia influence motor coordination, reward processing, and movement vigor. J. Neurosci. 42, 8406–8415 (2022). This review presents evidence of two projections from the cerebellum to the basal ganglia — a disynaptic projection to the dorsolateral striatum via the thalamus and a direct monosynaptic projection to the midbrain dopaminergic nuclei, the VTA and the SNc — and discusses their potential roles in motor and non-motor functions under normal and pathological conditions.
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Carta, I., Chen, C. H., Schott, A. L., Dorizan, S. & Khodakhah, K. Cerebellar modulation of the reward circuitry and social behavior. Science 363, eaav0581 (2019). This paper reports that monosynaptic projections from the cerebellum to the VTA may contribute to reward processing and social behaviors.
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This is a summary of: Washburn, S. et al. The cerebellum directly modulates the substantia nigra dopaminergic activity. Nat. Neurosci. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-023-01560-9 (2024).
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Cerebellar projections to the substantia nigra modulate basal ganglia dopamine levels. Nat Neurosci 27, 399–400 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-024-01587-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-024-01587-6
