AUTHOR=Akemann Walther , Middleton Steven J., Knopfel Thomas TITLE=Optical imaging as a link between cellular neurophysiology and circuit modeling JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience VOLUME=3 YEAR=2009 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cellular-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/neuro.03.005.2009 DOI=10.3389/neuro.03.005.2009 ISSN=1662-5102 ABSTRACT=

The relatively simple and highly modular circuitry of the cerebellum raised expectations decades ago that a realistic computational model of cerebellar circuit operations would be feasible, and prove insightful for unraveling cerebellar information processing. To this end, the biophysical properties of most cerebellar cell types and their synaptic connections have been well characterized and integrated into realistic single cell models. Furthermore, large scale models of cerebellar circuits that extrapolate from single cell properties to circuit dynamics have been constructed. While the development of single cell models have been constrained by microelectrode recordings, guidance and validation as these models are scaled up to study network interactions requires an experimental methodology capable of monitoring cerebellar dynamics at the population level. Here we review the potential of optical imaging techniques to serve this purpose.