| First Author | Mendoza J | Year | 2010 |
| Journal | J Neurosci | Volume | 30 |
| Issue | 5 | Pages | 1894-904 |
| PubMed ID | 20130198 | Mgi Jnum | J:157851 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:4437166 | Doi | 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5855-09.2010 |
| Citation | Mendoza J, et al. (2010) The cerebellum harbors a circadian oscillator involved in food anticipation. J Neurosci 30(5):1894-904 |
| abstractText | The cerebellum participates in motor coordination as well as in numerous cerebral processes, including temporal discrimination. Animals can predict daily timing of food availability, as manifested by food-anticipatory activity under restricted feeding. By studying ex vivo clock gene expression by in situ hybridization and recording in vitro Per1-luciferase bioluminescence, we report that the cerebellum contains a circadian oscillator sensitive to feeding cues (i.e., whose clock gene oscillations are shifted in response to restricted feeding). Food-anticipatory activity was markedly reduced in mice injected intracerebroventricularly with an immunotoxin that depletes Purkinje cells (i.e., OX7-saporin). Mice bearing the hotfoot mutation (i.e., Grid2(ho/ho)) have impaired cerebellar circuitry and mild ataxic phenotype. Grid2(ho/ho) mice fed ad libitum showed regular behavioral rhythms and day-night variations of clock gene expression in the hypothalamus and cerebellum. When challenged with restricted feeding, however, Grid2(ho/ho) mice did not show any food-anticipatory rhythms, nor timed feeding-induced changes in cerebellar clock gene expression. In hypothalamic arcuate and dorsomedial nuclei, however, shifts in Per1 expression in response to restricted feeding were similar in cerebellar mutant and wild-type mice. Furthermore, plasma corticosterone and metabolites before mealtime did not differ between cerebellar mutant and wild-type mice. Together, these data define a role for the cerebellum in the circadian timing network and indicate that the cerebellar oscillator is required for anticipation of mealtime. |
