Activity map of a cortico-cerebellar loop underlying motor planning

The neocortex and cerebellum interact to mediate cognitive functions. It remains unknown how the two structures organize into functional networks to mediate specific behaviors. Here we delineate activity supporting motor planning in relation to the mesoscale cortico-cerebellar connectome. In mice planning directional licking based on short-term memory, preparatory activity instructing future movement depends on the anterior lateral motor cortex (ALM) and the cerebellum. Transneuronal tracing revealed divergent and largely open-loop connectivity between the ALM and distributed regions of the cerebellum. A cerebellum-wide survey of neuronal activity revealed enriched preparatory activity in hotspot regions with conjunctive input–output connectivity to the ALM. Perturbation experiments show that the conjunction regions were required for maintaining preparatory activity and correct subsequent movement. Other cerebellar regions contributed little to motor planning despite input or output connectivity to the ALM. These results identify a functional cortico-cerebellar loop and suggest the cerebellar cortex selectively establishes reciprocal cortico-cerebellar communications to orchestrate motor planning.