Memory trace and timing mechanism localized to cerebellar Purkinje cells
Author
Summary, in English
The standard view of the mechanisms underlying learning is that they involve strengthening or weakening synaptic connections. Learned response timing is thought to combine such plasticity with temporally patterned inputs to the neuron. We show here that a cerebellar Purkinje cell in a ferret can learn to respond to a specific input with a temporal pattern of activity consisting of temporally specific increases and decreases in firing over hundreds of milliseconds without a temporally patterned input. Training Purkinje cells with direct stimulation of immediate afferents, the parallel fibers, and pharmacological blocking of interneurons shows that the timing mechanism is intrinsic to the cell itself. Purkinje cells can learn to respond not only with increased or decreased firing but also with an adaptively timed activity pattern.
Department/s
Publishing year
2014
Language
English
Pages
14930-14934
Publication/Series
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Volume
111
Issue
41
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences
Topic
- Basic Medicine
- Neurosciences
Status
Published
Project
- Thinking in Time: Cognition, Communication and Learning
Research group
- Associative Learning
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1091-6490