TY - JOUR
T1 - Cerebellar cortical inhibition and classical eyeblink conditioning
AU - Bao, Shaowen
AU - Chen, Lu
AU - Kim, Jeansok J.
AU - Thompson, Richard F.
PY - 2002/2/5
Y1 - 2002/2/5
N2 - The cerebellum is considered a brain structure in which memories for learned motor responses (e.g., conditioned eyeblink responses) are stored. Within the cerebellum, however, the relative importance of the cortex and the deep nuclei in motor learning/memory is not entirely clear. In this study, we show that the cerebellar cortex exerts both basal and stimulus-activated inhibition to the deep nuclei. Sequential application of a γ-aminobutyric acid type A receptor (GABAAR) agonist and a noncompetitive GABAAR antagonist allows selective blockade of stimulus-activated inhibition. By using the same sequential agonist and antagonist methods in behaving animals, we demonstrate that the conditioned response (CR) expression and timing are completely dissociable and involve different inhibitory inputs; although the basal inhibition modulates CR expression, the conditioned stimulus-activated inhibition is required for the proper timing of the CR. In addition, complete blockade of cerebellar deep nuclear GABAARs prevents CR acquisition. Together, these results suggest that different aspects of the memories for eyeblink CRs are encoded in the cerebellar cortex and the cerebellar deep nuclei.
AB - The cerebellum is considered a brain structure in which memories for learned motor responses (e.g., conditioned eyeblink responses) are stored. Within the cerebellum, however, the relative importance of the cortex and the deep nuclei in motor learning/memory is not entirely clear. In this study, we show that the cerebellar cortex exerts both basal and stimulus-activated inhibition to the deep nuclei. Sequential application of a γ-aminobutyric acid type A receptor (GABAAR) agonist and a noncompetitive GABAAR antagonist allows selective blockade of stimulus-activated inhibition. By using the same sequential agonist and antagonist methods in behaving animals, we demonstrate that the conditioned response (CR) expression and timing are completely dissociable and involve different inhibitory inputs; although the basal inhibition modulates CR expression, the conditioned stimulus-activated inhibition is required for the proper timing of the CR. In addition, complete blockade of cerebellar deep nuclear GABAARs prevents CR acquisition. Together, these results suggest that different aspects of the memories for eyeblink CRs are encoded in the cerebellar cortex and the cerebellar deep nuclei.
KW - Cerebellar cortex
KW - Cerebellar deep nuclei
KW - Learning
KW - Memory
KW - γ-aminobutyric acid
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0037022342&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=0037022342&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1073/pnas.032655399
DO - 10.1073/pnas.032655399
M3 - Article
C2 - 11805298
AN - SCOPUS:0037022342
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 99
SP - 1592
EP - 1597
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
IS - 3
ER -