# Investigating the role of cerebellar output during skilled motor behavior

> **NIH NIH F31** · UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER · 2020 · $18,980

## Abstract

Project Summary
The cerebellum is essential for the production of smooth and accurate movements. While much is known about
the neurophysiology of cerebellar neurons, our understanding of the mechanistic relationship between
cerebellar output and movement is limited. Two prominent hypotheses attempt to explain the function of
cerebellar output in motor control: that it operates as a motor command, or as a forward model for state
estimation. The motor command hypothesis predicts that cerebellar output contributes to movement directly,
while the forward model hypothesis suggests that cerebellar output encodes a prediction that is utilized by
downstream motor centers. Previous manipulations of cerebellar output lacked cell-type specificity and used
reversible lesions that lasted much longer than a single movement, preventing any causal test of whether
cerebellar output functions as a motor command or forward model. To address these limitations, this proposal
utilizes a kinematic closed-loop (kCL) system for optogenetics, in which stimulation is triggered by the real-time
kinematics of skilled reach behavior in mice. Combining this system with cell-type specific opsin expression in
the Interposed Nucleus (IN), the cerebellar nucleus most involved in reaching movements, will allow for short-
term, reversible manipulation of cerebellar output at specific kinematic locations of a single reaching
movement, differentiating fundamental hypotheses of cerebellar contributions to motor control.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9829600
- **Project number:** 5F31NS103328-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER
- **Principal Investigator:** Matthew Isaac Becker
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $18,980
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-12-01 → 2020-04-26

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9829600

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9829600, Investigating the role of cerebellar output during skilled motor behavior (5F31NS103328-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9829600. Licensed CC0.

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