Developmental changes in eye-blink conditioning and neuronal activity in the inferior olive.
Neuronal activity was recorded in the dorsal accessory inferior olive in infant rats during classical conditioning of the eye-blink response. The percentage and amplitude of eye-blink conditioned responses (CRs) increased as a function of age. The magnitude of the neuronal response to the unconditioned stimulus (US) decreased with age. There were also age-specific modifications of US-elicited inferior olive neuronal activity during paired trials in which a conditioned eye-blink response was performed. The results indicate that the development of the conditioned eye-blink response may depend on dynamic interactions between multiple developmental processes within the eye-blink circuitry. Differences in the functional maturity of olivo-cerebellar pathways may limit the induction of plasticity in the cerebellum and thereby limit the development of eye-blink conditioned responses.
Nicholson
D A
DA
Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA.
Freeman
J H
JH
D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D003215:Conditioning, Eyelid / Q000502:physiology*; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D004567:Electrodes, Implanted; D004576:Electromyography; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D009847:Olivary Nucleus / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology