The Cerebellum and Neural Control

Masao Ito is responsible for the remarkable discovery 20 years ago that the action of Purkinje's cells on their target neurons is uniformly inhibitory or disfacilitatory. This finding contributed greatly to our understanding of cerebellar function. Since that time, he and his colleagues in Tokyo have worked intensely upon the physiologic functions of the floccular lobe with respect to the vestibulo-ocular system. In this work he has systematically tested a hypothesis originally proposed by Marr and later modified by Albus that plastic interactions between climbing fibers and parallel fibers upon Purkinje's cells are responsible for aspects of motor learning. Ito's work has allowed theoretical constructs to be made concerning cerebellar input to adaptive and predictive control, multivariate control, motor learning, and motor programming. This work provides the underpinnings of the present book. The book presents a detailed review of cerebellar anatomy, physiology, and pharmacology. The text is divided into four