Complex spike activity signals the direction and size of dysmetric saccade errors

The cerebellar oculomotor vermis (OMV) receives inputs from both the superior colliculus (SC) via the nucleus reticularis tegmenti pontis as mossy fibres and the inferior olive as climbing fibres. Lesion studies show that the OMV is necessary for the saccade amplitude adaptation that corrects persistent motor errors. In this study, we examined whether the complex spike (CS) activity due to climbing fibre inputs could serve as an error signal to drive saccade adaptation. When there was an error during behaviourally induced saccade dysmetrias, the probability of CS occurrence depended on the direction and size of the error. If this CS activity actually drives saccade adaptation, we speculate that adaptation should be equally efficient in all directions and that the course of adaptation could have two operating modes.