title: Morphological changes in dendritic spines of Purkinje cells associated with motor learning.
abstract: Experience-dependent changes of spine structure and number may contribute to long-term memory storage. Although several studies demonstrated structural spine plasticity following associative learning, there is limited evidence associating motor learning with alteration of spine morphology. Here, we investigated this issue in the cerebellar Purkinje cells using high voltage electron microscopy (HVEM). Adult rats were trained in an obstacle course, demanding significant motor coordination to complete. Control animals either traversed an obstacle-free runway or remained sedentary. Quantitative analysis of spine morphology showed that the density and length of dendritic spines along the distal dendrites of Purkinje cells were significantly increased in the rats that learned complex motor skills compared to active or inactive controls. Classification of spines into shape categories indicated that the increased spine density and length after motor learning was mainly attributable to an increase in thin spines. These findings suggest that motor learning induces structural spine plasticity in the cerebellar Purkinje neurons, which may play a crucial role in acquiring complex motor skills.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, Division of Brain Korea 21 Project for Biomedical Science, Korea University College of Medicine, 126-1 Anam-Dong 5-Ka, Seoungbuk-Ku, Seoul 136-705, South Korea.
authors.forename: Kea Joo
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Joon Goo
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.forename: Tatsuo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Arii
authors.forename: Keiji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Imoto
authors.forename: Im Joo
authors.initials: IJ
authors.lastname: Rhyu
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D048430:Cell Shape; D049229:Dendritic Spines / Q000502:physiology*; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology*; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D011689:Purkinje Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley