Abstract
Most movements are not unitary, but are comprised of sequences. Although patients with cerebellar pathology display severe deficits in the execution and learning of sequences (Doyon et al., 1997; Shin and Ivry, 2003), most of our understanding of cerebellar mechanisms has come from analyses of single component movements. Eyelid conditioning is a cerebellar-mediated behavior that provides the ability to control and restrict inputs to the cerebellum through stimulation of mossy fibers. We utilized this advantage to test directly how the cerebellum can learn a sequence of inter-connected movement components in rabbits. We show that the feedback signals from one component are sufficient to serve as a cue for the next component in the sequence. In vivo recordings from Purkinje cells demonstrated that all components of the sequence were encoded similarly by cerebellar cortex. These results provide a simple yet general framework for how the cerebellum can use simple associate learning processes to chain together a sequence of appropriately timed responses.
Highlights
The data demonstrate that feedback signals from a conditioned eyelid response (CR) are a sufficient signal for the cerebellum to learn the response in a sequence (Figure 1C)
With a series of control experiments we showed that responses following the first CR are associated with feedback signals from the first CR and not with the electrical stimulation of mossy fibers that signaled the first response in the sequence
Recordings from eyelid Purkinje cells, the sole output neurons of cerebellar cortex, show that all CRs in the sequence are encoded in the same manner by the cerebellum and share similar neural learning mechanisms
Summary
We designed two control experiments and performed additional analyses on training session data as a formulation of these predictions to test relatively directly whether the second CR in a sequence (second left eyelid CR in ipsilateral protocol and right eyelid CR in contralateral protocol) is driven by FS from the first CR and not by the mossy fiber stimulation CS itself.
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