The cerebellum is involved in processing of predictions and prediction errors in a fear conditioning paradigm.

Thomas Michael Ernst,Ulrike Bingel,Christoph Ritter,Anna Evelina Brol,Marc Schlamann,Christian Josef Merz,Marcel Gratz,Stefan Maderwald,Dagmar Timmann,Harald H Quick

doi:10.7554/elife.46831

Abstract

Prediction errors are thought to drive associative fear learning. Surprisingly little is known about the possible contribution of the cerebellum. To address this question, healthy participants underwent a differential fear conditioning paradigm during 7T magnetic resonance imaging. An event-related design allowed us to separate cerebellar fMRI signals related to the visual conditioned stimulus (CS) from signals related to the subsequent unconditioned stimulus (US; an aversive electric shock). We found significant activation of cerebellar lobules Crus I and VI bilaterally related to the CS+ compared to the CS-. Most importantly, significant activation of lobules Crus I and VI was also present during the unexpected omission of the US in unreinforced CS+ acquisition trials. This activation disappeared during extinction when US omission became expected. These findings provide evidence that the cerebellum has to be added to the neural network processing predictions and prediction errors in the emotional domain.

Highlights

Cerebellar disease has long been known to result in disordered motor performance and motor learning
Evidence has accumulated that cerebellar patients also present with various degrees
it is often assumed that the cerebellum performs

Summary

Introduction

Cerebellar disease has long been known to result in disordered motor performance and motor learning (Holmes, 1908; McCormick and Thompson, 1984). It is assumed that the cerebellum is crucially involved in the prediction of the sensory consequences of motor commands thought to be achieved via internal models (Bastian, 2006; Miall et al, 1993; Wolpert et al, 1998). We wanted to provide initial evidence that the cerebellum has to be added to the neural network processing predictions errors in learned fear responses. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the cerebellum is involved in the processing of aversive predictions and prediction errors and has to be added to the neural network underlying emotional associative learning

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