Eyeblink conditioning in 12-day-old rats using pontine stimulation as the conditioned stimulus.

Full Abstract

A fundamental issue in developmental science is whether ontogenetic changes in memory are caused by the development of cellular plasticity mechanisms within the brain's memory systems or maturation of sensory inputs to the memory systems. Here, we provide evidence that the development of eyeblink conditioning, a form of associative learning that depends on the cerebellum, is driven by the development of sensory inputs rather than the development of neuronal plasticity mechanisms. We find that rats as young as 12 days old show associative eyeblink conditioning when pontine stimulation is used in place of an external (e.g., a tone) conditioned stimulus. Eyeblink-conditioned responses established with pontine stimulation in 12-day-old rats were reversibly abolished by an infusion of muscimol into the cerebellar interpositus nucleus. The findings suggest that cerebellar neurons are capable of supporting associative learning-specific plasticity in vivo in very immature animals if given sufficient afferent stimulation.

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Author information

Author/s: Campolattaro, Matthew M (MM); Freeman, John H (JH);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, E11 Seashore Hall, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA.

Grants: NS38890 (Agency:United States NINDS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Jun; vol 105 (issue 23) : pp 8120-3

Dates: Created 2008/06/11; Completed 2008/06/27;

PMID: 18523018, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Animals
Animals, Newborn
Association Learning
Blinking - physiology
Cerebellum - physiology

Cerebellum - physiology
Conditioning, Classical - physiology
Conditioning, Eyelid - physiology
Pons - physiology
Rats

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