Recently, the role of the olivocerebellar projection in cerebellar
operation has drawn the attention of many scientists who are trying to
understand how the cerebellum controls movements. The papers published
in this book were presented at a meeting held in Turin on August 9-12,
1987 as a satellite symposium of the 2nd World IBRO Congress in
Budapest. It was planned in collaboration with Rodolfo Llinas and Masao
Ito, although the latter was not able to attend. Some of the papers are
in the form of reviews, others are short communications of new
unpublished results. All aspects of research on the inferior olive are
covered including morphology, neurotransmission, development, and
electrophysiology, as well as its relation to behaviour and to human
pathology. The lively, endless scientific discussions have not been
published, but the reader may well imagine them from the different and
sometimes contrasting pOints of views expressed in the papers. There are
many examples showing that integrity of the inferior olive is necessary
for some forms of motor learning and for the adaptive capabilities ofthe
motor system. On the other hand, there is evidence that the inferior
olive is important in controlling the dynamic characteristics of
movement, both as a phasic and as a tonic operator. From this, two main
viewpoints have emerged. The "plasticitists" attribute the role of
inducing plastic changes to the synapse between the climbing fibre and
the Purkinje cell.