Grant: Project Grant

As we move through the world we need to respond rapidly to visual information from our environment. When driving through traffic, for example, unexpected lane changes, mistakes by other drivers, and the additional presence of bicycles and pedestrians require us to make nearly instantaneous adjustments to keep ourselves and others safe. How the brain accomplishes this feat has been difficult to understand because the best studied pathways for visual information either do not connect to the motor centres for locomotion or take long routes through multiple brain regions that are too long for quick reaction. There is emerging evidence, however, that a short pathway from the eye to the midbrain to the cerebellum serves an essential role in the transformation of visual signals to fast motor outputs. This pathway is conserved in vertebrates and has a well-known function in controlling eye movements. Comparative studies in mice, zebrafish, and birds are now revealing anatomical details and functional responses in support of its key function for the control of locomotion. Our research focuses on small birds because their maneuvering flight can be readily studied in the laboratory while recording and manipulating brain activity. The goal of this project grant proposal is to determine how three different regions of the cerebellum are specialized for the control of 1) maintaining a steady position, 2) maintaining a steady velocity, and 3) executing maneuvers to avoid collisions and other potential obstacles. Deficits in the ability to make use of visual signals for the control of locomotion underlie multiple disease and aging pathologies. This work will identify guidance behaviors and nominate specific neural connections as potential therapeutic targets.