Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 31, 2026

Assessing Corticospinal Excitability During Goal-Directed Reaching Behavior
Published on: December 2, 2022
The multiple roles of Purkinje cells in sensori-motor calibration: to predict, teach and command
1Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. jmed@psych.upenn.edu
Abstract:
Neurophysiological recordings in the cerebellar cortex of awake-behaving animals are revolutionizing the way we think about the role of Purkinje cells in sensori-motor calibration. Early theorists suggested that if a movement became miscalibrated, Purkinje cell output would be changed to adjust the motor command and restore good performance. The finding that Purkinje cell activity changed in many sensori-motor calibration tasks was taken as strong support for this hypothesis. Based on more recent data, however, it has been suggested that changes in Purkinje cell activity do not contribute to the motor command directly; instead, they are used either as a teaching signal, or to predict the altered kinematics of the movement after calibration has taken place. I will argue that these roles are not mutually exclusive, and that Purkinje cells may contribute to command generation, teaching, and prediction at different times during sensori-motor calibration.
Related Concept Videos
Hierarchy of Motor Control
Major Somatic Sensory Pathways
Motor and Sensory Areas of the Cortex
Motor Areas
The motor areas located in the frontal lobe are central to controlling voluntary movements. This region is further subdivided into the primary motor cortex and the premotor cortex.
The Role of Ion Channels in Neuronal Computation
Sometimes a single EPSP is strong enough to induce an action potential in the postsynaptic neuron. However, multiple presynaptic inputs must often create EPSPs around the same time for the postsynaptic neuron to be sufficiently depolarized to fire an action potential.
Neural Circuits
Neuronal pools are collections of nerve cells with similar functions and interact through chemical and electrical signals. These pools include both interneurons (the central neural circuit nodes that...
Somatosensory, Motor, and Association Cortex

