Cerebellar involvement in an evidence-accumulation decision-making task. Author Ben Deverett, Sue Koay, Marlies Oostland, Samuel Wang Publication Year 2018 Type Journal Article Abstract To make successful evidence-based decisions, the brain must rapidly and accurately transform sensory inputs into specific goal-directed behaviors. Most experimental work on this subject has focused on forebrain mechanisms. Using a novel evidence-accumulation task for mice, we performed recording and perturbation studies of crus I of the lateral posterior cerebellum, which communicates bidirectionally with numerous forebrain regions. Cerebellar inactivation led to a reduction in the fraction of correct trials. Using two-photon fluorescence imaging of calcium, we found that Purkinje cell somatic activity contained choice/evidence-related information. Decision errors were represented by dendritic calcium spikes, which in other contexts are known to drive cerebellar plasticity. We propose that cerebellar circuitry may contribute to computations that support accurate performance in this perceptual decision-making task. Keywords Animals, Cerebellum, Mice, Female, Male, Decision Making, Action Potentials, Behavior, Animal, Neurons, Perception, Calcium Signaling Journal Elife Volume 7 Date Published 2018 Aug 13 ISSN Number 2050-084X DOI 10.7554/eLife.36781 Alternate Journal Elife PMCID PMC6105309 PMID 30102151 PubMedPubMed CentralGoogle ScholarBibTeXEndNote X3 XML