Rabbit cerebellar slice analysis of long-term depression and its role in classical conditioning

Abstract

Cerebellar long-term depression (LTD) has been proposed as a mechanism underlying classical conditioning of the rabbit nictitating membrane/eyelid response (NMR). However, LTD has only been obtained reliably when (1) cerebellar slices are bathed in GABA antagonists which abolish disynaptic inhibitory post synaptic potentials, and (2) the temporal sequence of stimulation used in slice or intact preparations is the opposite of that used in classical conditioning. Based on intradendritic Purkinje cell recordings obtained from rabbit cerebellar slices, we report that stimulation of climbing fibers and then parallel fibers in the presence of the GABA antagonist, bicuculline, produced significant depression of parallel fiber excitatory post synaptic potential (epsp) amplitude that continued to increase for at least 20 min after stimulation. However, application of the same stimulation protocol without GABA antagonists produced a brief depression of parallel fiber epsps that disappeared within minutes. Activation of parallel fibers and then climbing fibers in an order opposite to the LTD-producing sequence (i.e. a classical conditioning-like order) produced a brief depression that dissipated quickly. Stimulation of parallel fibers alone produced a small, slowly developing potentiation, but stimulation of parallel fibers during depolarization-induced local dendritic calcium spikes produced significant depression almost immediately which then declined slowly to more modest levels. Finally, stimulation of parallel fibers at frequencies used in in vivo parallel fiber-climbing fiber stimulation experiments (e.g. 100 Hz) produced an immediate and profound long-lasting epsp depression. The depression occurred, however, whether parallel and climbing fibers were stimulated separately (unpaired) or in a classical conditioning-like protocol (paired) where parallel fiber stimulation coterminated with climbing fiber stimulation (10 Hz). The depression observed in both cases was reminiscent of transmitter depletion. Thus, despite obvious differences between in vitro and in vivo preparations, the present intradendritic Purkinje cell recordings in a rabbit cerebellar slice do caste some doubt on the hypothesis that LTD functions as a mechanism underlying classical conditioning of the rabbit NMR.