PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Martha W. Bagnall
AU  - Brian Zingg
AU  - Alexandra Sakatos
AU  - Setareh H. Moghadam
AU  - Hanns Ulrich Zeilhofer
AU  - Sascha du Lac
TI  - Glycinergic Projection Neurons of the Cerebellum
AID  - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2087-09.2009
DP  - 2009 Aug 12
TA  - The Journal of Neuroscience
PG  - 10104--10110
VI  - 29
IP  - 32
4099  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/29/32/10104.short
4100  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/29/32/10104.full
SO  - J. Neurosci.2009 Aug 12; 29
AB  - The cerebellum funnels its entire output through a small number of presumed glutamatergic premotor projection neurons in the deep cerebellar nuclei and GABAergic neurons that feed back to the inferior olive. Here we use transgenic mice selectively expressing green fluorescent protein in glycinergic neurons to demonstrate that many premotor output neurons in the medial cerebellar (fastigial) nuclei are in fact glycinergic, not glutamatergic as previously thought. These neurons exhibit similar firing properties as neighboring glutamatergic neurons and receive direct input from both Purkinje cells and excitatory fibers. Glycinergic fastigial neurons make functional projections to vestibular and reticular neurons in the ipsilateral brainstem, whereas their glutamatergic counterparts project contralaterally. Together, these data suggest that the cerebellum can influence motor outputs via two distinct and complementary pathways.