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The Journal of Neuroscience, November 1, 1998, 18(21):9112-9129
Neural Learning Rules for the Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex
Jennifer L.
Raymond and
Stephen G.
Lisberger
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Physiology and
W. M. Keck Foundation Center for Integrative Neuroscience,
University of California, San Francisco, California 94143
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ABSTRACT |
Mechanisms for the induction of motor learning in the
vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) were evaluated by recording the patterns of neural activity elicited in the cerebellum by a range of stimuli that induce learning. Patterns of climbing-fiber, vestibular, and
Purkinje cell simple-spike signals were examined during sinusoidal head
movement paired with visual image movement at stimulus frequencies from
0.5 to 10 Hz. A comparison of simple-spike and vestibular signals
contained the information required to guide learning only at low
stimulus frequencies, and a comparison of climbing-fiber and
simple-spike signals contained the information required to guide
learning only at high stimulus frequencies. Learning could be guided by
comparison of climbing-fiber and vestibular signals at all stimulus
frequencies tested, but only if climbing fiber responses were compared
with the vestibular signals present 100 msec earlier. Computational
analysis demonstrated that this conclusion is valid even if there is a
broad range of vestibular signals at the site of plasticity.
Simulations also indicated that the comparison of vestibular and
climbing-fiber signals across the 100 msec delay must be implemented by
a subcellular "eligibility" trace rather than by neural circuits
that delay the vestibular inputs to the site of plasticity. The results
suggest two alternative accounts of learning in the VOR. Either there
are multiple mechanisms of learning that use different combinations of
neural signals to drive plasticity, or there is a single mechanism
tuned to climbing-fiber activity that follows activity in vestibular
pathways by ~100 msec.
Key words:
vestibulo-ocular reflex; plasticity; horizontal gaze
velocity Purkinje cells; climbing fibers; parallel fibers; cerebellar
LTD
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INTRODUCTION |
A major goal in neuroscience is to
link systems-level analyses of learning with cellular analyses of
plasticity. At the interface of these two levels of inquiry is the
question of what patterns of neural activity are necessary and
sufficient to induce synaptic plasticity in the awake behaving animal.
Such neural signals must transduce the sensory stimuli that guide
learning into the cellular changes that encode memory. In the present
study, we ask what patterns of neural activity drive plasticity
in vivo by examining the neural signals present during
stimuli that induce motor learning in the vestibulo-ocular reflex
(VOR).
The VOR stabilizes images on the retina by causing eye rotation in the
opposite direction to head turns. Motor learning calibrates the VOR by
modifying the amplitude of the reflex whenever retinal image motion is
associated persistently with head turns (Gonshor and Melvill Jones,
1973 ; Ito et al., 1974 ; Miles and Fuller, 1974 ; Gauthier and Robinson,
1975 ). If head turns are paired with image motion in the same direction
as the head turn, then a learned decrease is induced in the amplitude
of the VOR. If head turns are paired with image motion in the opposite
direction from the head turn, then a learned increase is induced in the
amplitude of the VOR. These changes are documented by computing the
gain of the VOR, defined as the ratio of eye movement amplitude to head
movement amplitude during passive head turns in darkness.
Learning in the VOR is associative: it depends on the pairing of head
turns and image motion. Therefore, one would expect the information
that guides learning in the VOR to be carried in the correlation
between two or more neural signals. Three likely candidates for the
neural signals that guide learning in the VOR are the activity in
vestibular pathways, activity in climbing fibers carrying visual
signals, and the simple-spike activity in Purkinje cells carrying
visual, vestibular, and eye movement signals (see Figs. 2, 4,
left). All three of these neural signals are present at the
putative sites of plasticity in the circuit for the VOR, which are in
the floccular complex of the cerebellar cortex and in the vestibular
nuclei (for review and citations to the relevant literature, see duLac
et al., 1995 ; Highstein et al., 1997 ). In principle, any combination of
climbing-fiber, simple-spike, and vestibular signals could act at
either site of plasticity. Two specific hypotheses have been proposed
regarding the neural signals that guide motor learning in the VOR. One
suggests that learning is guided by the coincidence of simple-spike
firing of Purkinje cells and activity of vestibular inputs to the site of plasticity in the vestibular nuclei (Miles and Lisberger, 1981 ). The
other suggests that the coincidence of visual climbing-fiber and
vestibular parallel-fiber activity guides learning by inducing long-term depression (LTD) of synapses from vestibular parallel fibers
to Purkinje cells in the cerebellar cortex (Ito, 1972 , 1982 ). This
latter hypothesis represents a specific implementation of the general
hypothesis that synaptic plasticity in the cerebellar cortex is the
mechanism of cerebellum-dependent learning (Marr, 1969 ; Albus,
1971 ). The Marr-Albus-Ito hypothesis has considerable theoretical appeal and has received experimental support from the
demonstration of LTD in the cerebellar cortex, driven by coincident climbing-fiber and parallel-fiber activation (Ito et al., 1982 ). However, causal links have yet to be established between cerebellar LTD
and specific instances of cerebellum-dependent learning (Lisberger, 1998 ; Mauk et al., 1998 ).
In the present study, we constrain hypotheses regarding the neural
signals that guide cerebellum-dependent learning by examining the
patterns of climbing-fiber, simple-spike, and vestibular signals present during a range of stimuli that induce learned decreases or
increases in the gain of the VOR. We focus on a well studied subclass
of Purkinje cells called the horizontal gaze velocity Purkinje cells
(HGVPs) (Lisberger and Fuchs, 1978a ; Miles et al., 1980a ). However, our
recordings from other subclasses of Purkinje cells in the floccular
complex suggest similar conclusions (Raymond and Lisberger, 1997 ). The
results require revision of both of the previous hypotheses about motor
learning in the VOR.
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MATERIALS AND METHODS |
Experiments were conducted on two male rhesus monkeys that had
been trained to perform a visual fixation task (Wurtz, 1969 ) to obtain
liquid reinforcement. Using methods that have been described previously, monkeys were anesthetized with isofluorane, and sterile procedure was used to implant bolts in the skull for restraining the
head (Lisberger and Westbrook, 1985 ) and to implant a coil of wire on
one eye for measuring horizontal and vertical eye position (Judge et
al., 1980 ). In a second surgical procedure, a recording cylinder was
cemented over a hole in the calvarium to allow access to the cerebellum
for single-unit recording. The cylinder was placed stereotaxically at
an angle of 26° (electrodes running in the sagittal plane from back
to front) and aimed at the anteroposterior location of the ear bars, 11 mm lateral to the midline (Lisberger et al., 1994c ).
During experiments, each monkey sat in a specially designed primate
chair, to which his implanted head holder was secured. Platinum-iridium electrodes were used to make recordings from Purkinje
cells in the floccular complex of the cerebellum (flocculus and ventral
paraflocculus) (Gerrits and Voogd, 1989 ), while the monkey viewed
moving visual stimuli and underwent passive whole body angular
rotation. Vestibular stimuli were provided by a servo-controlled turntable (Contraves-Goertz, model 813) that rotated the monkey, the
chair, and a set of 18-inch magnetic field coils together about a
vertical axis.
After a Purkinje cell was isolated, it was first characterized by its
responses (1) during the smooth pursuit eye movements evoked by
sinusoidal motion of a small visual target along a horizontal or
vertical axis at 0.5 Hz, ±31.4°/sec (position amplitude ±10°) and
(2) as the monkey canceled his VOR by tracking a spot that moved
exactly with sinusoidal head rotation about a vertical axis at 0.5 Hz,
±31.4°/sec. For these initial behavioral conditions, the visual
stimulus was a small spot subtending 0.5° of visual angle. The
present work focuses on HGVPs, a well studied class of Purkinje cells
in the floccular complex (Lisberger and Fuchs, 1978a ; Miles et al.,
1980a ). Purkinje cells were classified as HGVPs and were included in
the study if (1) during horizontal smooth pursuit eye movements,
simple-spike firing rate was modulated by ±10 spikes/sec and there was
a phase difference (lead or lag) of less than 45° between peak firing
rate and peak ipsiversive eye velocity (see below for calculation of
amplitude and phase of simple-spike modulation); (2) during
cancellation of the VOR, simple-spike firing rate was modulated by ±10
spikes/sec and the phase difference between peak firing rate and peak
ipsiversive head velocity was less than 45°; and (3) modulation of
simple-spike firing rate was greater during horizontal smooth pursuit
eye movements than during vertical smooth pursuit eye movements. The
results of similar experiments on Purkinje cells in the floccular
complex that did not meet these requirements for being classified as
HGVPs have been presented elsewhere (Raymond and Lisberger, 1997 ).
Recordings were made from HGVPs under conditions that had been shown in
a previous study to cause learning in the VOR (Raymond and Lisberger,
1996 ). Sinusoidal head rotation was paired with the motion of a
high-contrast, black and white pattern that was reflected off a mirror
galvanometer onto the back of a tangent screen 114 cm in front of the
eyes. The visual stimulus subtended ~30° along the horizontal
meridian and 20° along the vertical meridian. At the center of the
visual stimulus was a bright spot that subtended 0.5° of visual
angle. The vestibular stimulus was sinusoidal head motion with a peak
velocity of ±10°/sec. All HGVPs were recorded during 0.5 and 5 Hz
vestibular stimulation, and some cells were also recorded during 2 and
10 Hz stimuli. These combinations of frequency and peak velocity
correspond to position amplitudes of ±3.2°, ±0.8°, ±0.32°,
and ± 0.16° at 0.5, 2, 5, and 10 Hz, respectively. The visual
stimulus moved either exactly with or exactly opposite to the head
motion, thereby creating stimulus conditions for which the optimal
tracking eye velocity was either zero times or two times the head
velocity. Therefore, these stimulus configurations are called "×0"
and "×2". Figure 1 illustrates the ×0 and ×2 stimuli and the eye
movements elicited by each at a stimulus frequency of 0.5 Hz. During
both ×0 and ×2 stimuli, the monkey used visual tracking mechanisms to
match gaze velocity (eye velocity with respect to the world) to visual stimulus velocity. As a result, the smooth component of eye velocity was nearly unmodulated during ×0 stimuli and was approximately twice
head velocity during ×2 stimuli. At higher stimulus frequencies, tracking failed to match gaze velocity to target velocity, and the eye
movements were more similar during ×0 and ×2 stimuli (Fuchs, 1967 ;
Lisberger et al., 1981 ; Bock, 1982 ; Goldreich et al., 1992 ; Raymond and
Lisberger, 1997 ). Limitations of the vestibular turntable and mirror
galvanometer caused some deviation of the vestibular and visual
stimulus from the commanded movements. However, the head was always
within 10% of the commanded velocity, and the visual stimulus speed
was always within 17% of the head speed and within 13° of being
exactly in phase or exactly out of phase with the head.
For each frequency of sinusoidal vestibular stimulation, ×0 and ×2
stimuli were alternated, and each stimulus was presented for 60 to 120 sec. Recordings were made when the gain of the VOR was close to 1.0, and the ×0 and ×2 stimuli were not presented for long enough to cause
measurable changes in the gain of the VOR in the dark. Thus, Purkinje
cell responses were recorded under conditions that cause learning but
were not followed as the gain of the VOR was modified. To maintain a
constant level of alertness and to keep the visual stimulus
approximately centered in the visual field during vestibular
stimulation, monkeys were rewarded at intervals of 1.5-4 sec for
keeping their gaze within ±10° of the spot in the center of the
visual stimulus. This reward contingency was the same as that used
previously to study behavioral changes in the VOR (Raymond and
Lisberger, 1996 ) and was selected so that the conditions for recordings
from Purkinje cells would be exactly the same as had been used to
induce changes in the gain of the VOR in the behavioral study. In
general, the monkeys kept their gaze within 2° of the central spot
more than 90% of the time during the ×0 and ×2 stimuli.
Electrodes were introduced daily and driven by a hydraulic microdrive
through the cerebral cortex toward the cerebellum. Entry into the
cerebellum was recognized by a large increase in background activity
and the presence of the complex spikes of Purkinje cells. Entry into
the floccular complex was signaled by the presence of background
activity related to eye movements and confirmed by the location
relative to landmarks such as the vestibular nerve and bone. We did not
perform histology to verify the location of the electrodes, because
HGVPs are known to localize to the floccular complex (Lisberger and
Fuchs, 1978a ; Miles et al., 1980a ).
The responses of individual Purkinje cells were isolated by careful
movements of the electrode and then followed for up to 1 hour. Voltages
related to eye position, eye velocity, head velocity, and visual
stimulus position were recorded during the experiment at 500 Hz/channel. An eye velocity signal was obtained by using an analog
circuit to differentiate the eye position output from the eye coil
electronics, and the head velocity signal was obtained from a
tachometer attached to the shaft of the turntable. The simple-spike
activity of Purkinje cells was triggered with a hardware window
discriminator, and the times of the resulting pulses were recorded to
the nearest 10 µsec. In addition, unit activity was sampled at 50 kHz, and off-line spike sorting with time and amplitude windows was
used to discriminate complex spikes and record their time of occurrence
to the nearest 1 msec. Of our total sample of 54 HGVPs, complex spikes
were analyzed for the 26 in which the complex-spike wave form could be
clearly and reliably differentiated from the simple-spike wave form. In
15 HGVPs, the complex spike could be seen or heard, but not
discriminated with confidence from the simple spikes in all records. In
the remaining 13 Purkinje cells, complex spikes were not observed, but
the cells were deemed likely to be Purkinje cells because of their
simple-spike wave form, their irregular simple-spike firing rate, the
ability to record the cells through several hundred micrometers
of cerebellum, and, in some cases, their characteristic injury
discharge at the end of the recording.
The data were analyzed after the experiment by aligning the records on
the negative-to-positive zero crossings of sinusoidal head velocity or
visual stimulus position. For ×0 and ×2 stimuli, tracking was not a
criterion, so that all stimulus cycles were included in the analysis.
For pursuit and cancellation of the VOR at 0.5 Hz, only cycles with
good tracking were included in the analysis. Each cycle was divided
into 64 equal-length bins, and head velocity, simple-spike firing rate,
and complex-spike firing rate were averaged. The amplitude of
modulation and phase of the responses were estimated as the amplitude
and phase of the fundamental components provided by Fourier analysis of
the averages.
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RESULTS |
To evaluate which neural signals guide the induction of learning
in the VOR, we compared the patterns of neural activity present at the
putative sites of plasticity during stimuli that induce learned
decreases and increases in the gain of the VOR (Fig.
1). Conditions that induce a learned
decrease in gain were created by pairing a vestibular stimulus with a
visual stimulus that moved exactly with the head (×0 stimulus).
Conditions that induce a learned increase in gain were created by
pairing a vestibular stimulus with a visual stimulus that moved exactly
opposite to the head (×2 stimulus). We performed a pairwise analysis
of the simple-spike, climbing-fiber, and vestibular signals present
during ×0 and ×2 stimuli to determine whether each pair of signals
contained the information required to guide learning.

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Figure 1.
Stimuli that induce learned decreases
(×0, A) and increases
(×2, B) in the gain of the VOR. From
top to bottom, the traces
are eye velocity with respect to the orbit, angular head velocity in
space, visual stimulus velocity in space, and gaze velocity in space.
Gaze velocity was computed as the sum of head velocity in space plus
eye velocity in the orbit. In all traces, upward
deflections represent leftward position or velocity
(L); downward deflections
represent rightward position or velocity (R). The
brief deflections in the eye and gaze velocity traces
are caused by saccadic eye movements; their amplitudes have been
cropped. The frequency of the stimuli is 0.5 Hz.
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We used two criteria for evaluating whether a particular combination of
neural signals could provide suitable guidance for the cellular
mechanisms of learning in the VOR. First, signals that guide learning
must discriminate ×0 stimuli, which decrease the gain of the VOR, from
×2 stimuli, which increase the gain of the VOR. Patterns of neural
activity that are the same during both stimulus configurations would
contain no information about whether the gain should decrease or
increase and therefore could not be responsible for the opposite
learned changes in the VOR induced by the ×0 and ×2 stimuli. This
criterion is illustrated by previous analyses of the correlation
between the vestibular stimulus and simple-spike activity in HGVPs
(Lisberger and Fuchs, 1978a ; Miles et al., 1980a ). During sinusoidal
stimuli at frequencies below 0.5 Hz, simple-spike activity was in phase
with ipsiversive head velocity during the ×0 stimulus configuration
but was out of phase with ipsiversive head velocity during the ×2
stimulus configuration. Therefore, Miles and Lisberger (1981)
hypothesized that the timing of HGVP simple-spike activity relative to
ipsiversive or contraversive head velocity could determine whether
cellular changes that increase or decrease the gain of the VOR were
induced.
In the present paper, we applied an additional criterion: if there is a
single mechanism that mediates learning in the VOR, then a single pair
of neural signals should evince similar patterns of activity during all
stimuli that induce similar learned changes in the VOR. For example,
×0 stimuli are effective at inducing learned decreases in the gain of
the VOR, and ×2 stimuli are effective at inducing learned increases in
the gain of the VOR for sinusoidal stimulus frequencies up to at least
5 Hz (Raymond and Lisberger, 1996 ). For 10 Hz stimuli, the changes are
generally in the adaptive direction (decrease in gain for ×0 stimuli,
increase in gain for ×2 stimuli) but are smaller and less consistent.
Thus, if an increase in the gain of the VOR is induced by coincident
activity in a pair of neural pathways, then activity in those pathways
should be coincident during ×2 stimuli at all frequencies from 0.5 to 10 Hz. To evaluate this prediction, we analyzed the neural signals present during ×0 and ×2 stimuli at 0.5, 2, 5, and 10 Hz. Neural signals that meet our two criteria would provide unambiguous
information about whether to increase or decrease the gain of the VOR
and thus could serve as error signals to guide learning.
We examined three pairs of neural signals: simple-spike activity
in Purkinje cells versus vestibular signals; climbing-fiber activity
versus vestibular signals; and simple-spike versus climbing-fiber activity. We were able to evaluate all three pairs simultaneously by
recording from Purkinje cells under conditions in which we controlled
the vestibular inputs. Simple-spike activity was recorded directly from
the Purkinje cells. Climbing-fiber activity was recorded by isolating
complex spikes from recordings of Purkinje cells, because complex
spikes are driven in a one-to-one manner by spikes in the
climbing-fiber input to the Purkinje cell. We did not record the
vestibular inputs to either the brainstem or cerebellar site of
plasticity directly. Because we controlled the vestibular stimulus,
however, we could be confident that these inputs were identical for ×0
and ×2 stimuli at a particular frequency. As a result, comparison of
Purkinje cell complex-spike or simple-spike discharge with the head
velocity stimulus at a particular frequency reveals whether learning
could be guided by correlating climbing-fiber responses or simple-spike
activity in Purkinje cells with the activity of any set of vestibular
neurons. Here, we present the results from the HGVP subclass of
Purkinje cells (Lisberger and Fuchs, 1978a ; Miles et al., 1980a ). We
focused on these cells because they have been shown to express changes
in firing in association with changes in the gain of the VOR and
therefore are widely thought to play a role in learning (Miles et al.,
1980b ; Lisberger et al., 1994c ). We have reported previously that
similar conclusions can be drawn for other subclasses of Purkinje cells
in the floccular complex (Raymond and Lisberger, 1997 ).
Correlation of Purkinje cell simple-spike activity with the
vestibular stimulus during learning
The histograms in Figure 2 show the
simple-spike activity in a typical HGVP during stimuli that, if
prolonged, would have induced learned changes in the gain of the VOR.
All four stimuli caused modulation of the simple-spike activity around
a fairly high-average firing rate of ~70-80 spikes/sec. Because of
the high spontaneous firing rate of the HGVPs, we analyze the
modulation of simple-spike activity rather than absolute levels of
activity. At 0.5 Hz, the timing of elevated simple-spike activity
relative to the vestibular stimulus discriminated the ×0 stimulus
configuration from the ×2 stimulus configuration. When a 0.5 Hz
vestibular stimulus was paired with ×0 visual stimulus motion, peak
simple-spike activity in the HGVP coincided with ipsiversive head
motion (Fig. 2A, vertical dashed line,
Ipsi). When the same vestibular stimulus was paired with ×2
visual stimulus motion, peak simple-spike activity coincided with
contraversive head motion (Fig 2C, vertical dashed
line, Contra). Simple-spike activity also was modulated
during the 5 Hz stimuli. However, at this frequency, the relative
timing of the vestibular stimulus and simple-spike activity in the HGVP failed to discriminate the ×0 stimulus from the ×2 stimulus.
Simple-spike activity peaked during contraversive head velocity,
regardless of whether the stimulus induced a decrease (Fig.
2B, ×0) or increase (Fig.
2D, ×2) in the gain of the
VOR.

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Figure 2.
Histograms showing the simple-spike activity
recorded in a representative Purkinje cell during stimuli that induce
learned decreases (×0, A,
B) and increases (×2, C,
D) in the gain of the VOR. Head velocity,
Angular head velocity in the horizontal plane. Vertical dashed
lines mark peak contraversive and ipsiversive head velocity.
Note the different time scales in the left
(A, C) and right
(B, D) panels, which show
data for sinusoidal stimuli at 0.5 and 5 Hz, respectively. Twenty to
500 stimulus cycles were averaged to obtain each histogram. The
simplified circuit diagram on the left highlights the
loci of vestibular and Purkinje cell (PC) simple-spike
signals in the circuit for the VOR.
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Figure 3 summarizes the correlation of
the vestibular stimulus with simple-spike activity recorded in the
entire sample of 54 HGVPs. Responses are plotted in polar coordinates,
at a distance from the origin corresponding to the amplitude of
response modulation and an angle corresponding to the phase of peak
simple-spike activity relative to the vestibular stimulus. Simple-spike
responses in phase with peak ipsiversive head velocity are plotted in
Figure 3 to the right of the origin, responses in phase with
peak contraversive head velocity are plotted to the left of
the origin, and clockwise rotation around the graph
represents increased phase lead. Thus, in these polar plots, the phase
reflects the relative timing of the simple-spike and vestibular
signals. The key question is whether the responses to ×0 and ×2
stimuli plot in separate parts of each graph or whether the responses
during ×0 and ×2 stimuli are similar and plot together.

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Figure 3.
Summary of Purkinje cell simple-spike responses,
plotted relative to the vestibular stimulus. Each plot compares
responses during ×0 stimuli and ×2 stimuli at the single frequency
indicated in the bottom right quadrant. Each point
represents the simple-spike activity recorded in a single Purkinje
cell, plotted in polar coordinates with distance from the origin
corresponding to the amplitude of response modulation and an angle
corresponding to the phase shift between peak simple-spike activity and
head velocity. Responses in phase with peak ipsiversive head velocity
are plotted to the right of the origin, responses in
phase with peak contraversive head velocity are plotted to the
left of the origin, and clockwise
rotation around the graph represents increased phase lead. An
individual Purkinje cell contributed two symbols for
each stimulus frequency: a + (monkey D) or X (monkey E)
symbol for the ×0 stimulus, and a filled
square (monkey D) or filled triangle (monkey E)
for the ×2 stimulus. The plots in A-D are on the same
scale, with inner and outer circles representing 10 simple spikes/sec
(SS/s) and 50 simple spikes/sec, respectively.
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At 0.5 Hz (Fig. 3A) and 2 Hz (Fig. 3B), the
patterns of simple-spike and vestibular signals present during the ×0
stimuli (Fig. 3, + and X symbols) were clearly
different from the patterns of signals present during the ×2 stimuli
(Fig. 3, filled symbols). Responses to the ×0 and
×2 stimuli form distinguishable, almost nonoverlapping populations
that plot on opposite sides of each graph. Thus, the timing of the
simple spikes relative to the vestibular stimulus can discriminate ×0
from ×2 stimuli at these low frequencies. In contrast, at 5 Hz (Fig.
3C) and 10 Hz (Fig. 3D), the patterns of
simple-spike and vestibular signals present during the ×0 stimulus configuration were quite similar to those present during the ×2 stimulus configuration. The polar plots in Figure 3 show extensive overlap in the response populations, even for the 5 Hz stimuli, which
produced simple-spike responses of amplitudes similar to those produced
by lower-stimulus frequencies. This indicates that the relative timing
of simple-spike and vestibular signals cannot distinguish the ×0
stimuli from the ×2 stimuli at frequencies of 5 Hz or above.
Correlation of complex-spike activity with the vestibular stimulus
during learning
The histograms in Figure 4
illustrate the relationship between the vestibular stimulus and the
complex-spike activity of one HGVP during ×0 and ×2 stimuli at 0.5 and 5 Hz. Complex-spike activity precisely reflects the activity of the
climbing-fiber input to the HGVP, because spikes in the climbing fiber
produce complex spikes in the Purkinje cell target in a one-to-one
manner. Complex-spike activity was modulated during all four stimuli
and, at each frequency, satisfied the criterion that comparison with
the vestibular stimulus discriminated the stimuli that decreased (×0)
versus increased (×2) the gain of the VOR. For example, during the 5 Hz vestibular stimulus, complex-spike activity was in phase with
ipsiversive head velocity when the gain of the VOR needed to decrease
(Fig. 4B, ×0) but was in phase with
contraversive head velocity when the gain needed to increase (Fig.
4D, ×2). However, the phase of the peak
complex-spike response relative to the vestibular stimulus depended not
just on whether the stimulus would induce a decrease or increase in the
gain of the VOR but also on the stimulus frequency. During the ×0
stimuli, for example, complex-spike activity was in phase with
ipsiversive head velocity at 5 Hz (Fig. 4B) but was in phase with contraversive
head velocity at 0.5 Hz (Fig. 4A).

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Figure 4.
Histograms showing climbing-fiber activity during
stimuli that induce learned decreases (×0,
A, B) and increases (×2,
C, D) in the gain of the VOR.
Climbing-fiber activity was recorded as complex spikes in the
representative Purkinje cell whose simple-spike responses are shown in
Figure 2. Climbing-fiber responses from 20-500 stimulus cycles were
averaged to obtain each histogram. Note the different time scales in
the left (A, C) and
right (B, D)
panels, which show data for sinusoidal stimuli at 0.5 and 5 Hz, respectively. Vertical dashed lines mark peak
contraversive and ipsiversive head velocity. The simplified circuit
diagram on the left highlights the loci of vestibular
signals and climbing-fiber (CF) signals in the
circuit for the VOR. IO, Inferior olive.
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Figure 5 uses polar plots to summarize
the correlation of the vestibular stimulus with the complex-spike
responses in all 26 HGVPs in which the complex spike was isolated. For
each stimulus frequency, the complex-spike responses to the ×0 and ×2
stimuli plot on opposite sides of the graph, forming distinguishable, almost nonoverlapping populations. However, in the different graphs, the phase of the complex-spike responses relative to the vestibular stimulus rotated as a function of stimulus frequency, indicating that
the relative phase of climbing-fiber and vestibular signals was not
similar for all stimuli that produced similar learned changes in the
gain of the VOR. During the ×2 stimuli (Fig. 5, filled
symbols), for example, peak complex-spike activity led ipsiversive
head velocity slightly at 0.5 Hz (Fig. 5A), it lagged ipsiversive head velocity at 2 and 10 Hz (Fig.
5B,D), and it was almost exactly
out of phase with ipsiversive head velocity at 5 Hz (Fig.
5C). Similarly, complex-spike responses to ×0 stimuli at
different frequencies peaked during different phases of the vestibular
stimulus (Fig. 5, + and X symbols).

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Figure 5.
Summary of climbing-fiber responses, plotted
relative to the vestibular stimulus. A-D,
Climbing-fiber responses to stimulus frequencies of 0.5, 2, 5, and 10 Hz. Responses are plotted in polar coordinates, with distance from the
origin corresponding to the amplitude of response modulation and an
angle corresponding to the phase shift between peak climbing-fiber
activity and head velocity. Responses in phase with peak ipsiversive
head velocity are plotted to the right of the origin,
responses in phase with peak contraversive head velocity are plotted to
the left of the origin, and clockwise
rotation around the graph represents increased phase lead. An
individual climbing fiber contributed two symbols for
each stimulus frequency: a + (monkey D) or X (monkey E)
symbol for the ×0 stimulus, and a filled
square (monkey D) or a filled triangle (monkey
E) for the ×2 stimulus. R×0 marks the
point in the vestibular stimulus leading peak contraversive head
velocity by 46°, and R×2 marks the point
in the vestibular stimulus leading peak ipsiversive head velocity by
46°. Open arrows show the predicted phase at
each frequency for a fixed delay in the climbing-fiber response of 122 msec from R×0. Filled arrows
show the predicted phase at each frequency for a fixed delay in the
climbing-fiber response of 122 msec from
R×2. In all panels, inner
and outer circles represent 1 climbing-fiber spike per second
(CFR/s) and 2 climbing-fiber spikes/sec, respectively.
Note the difference in scale from Figure 3.
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The change in phase of the complex-spike responses with frequency can
be described by a fixed time delay between a fixed reference point in
the vestibular stimulus and peak complex-spike activity. We fit the
phases of the complex-spike responses to ×0 and ×2 stimuli at 0.5, 2, 5, and 10 Hz with the following equations:
|
(1)
|
|
(2)
|
where ×0, and
×2, are the phase of peak complex-spike
activity during a ×0 or ×2 stimulus at frequency ,
T is a fixed time delay, R×0
is the reference point for ×0 stimuli, R×2 is
the reference point for ×2 stimuli, and R×2 is
constrained to be exactly 180° opposite R×0:
R×2 = R×0 + . We found that a fixed delay (T) of
122 msec and reference points on the vestibular stimulus leading peak
contraversive (for R×0) and ipsiversive (for
R×2) head velocity by 46° yielded the best
fit. Thus, the frequency dependency of the complex spike responses is
approximately consistent with the 100 msec latency between visual
stimuli and complex-spike responses reported previously (Stone and
Lisberger, 1990 )
The open and filled arrows in Figure 5 show
the fixed time delay of 122 msec from R×0 and
from R×2, respectively. The fixed delay
translates into a progressively larger phase lag at higher frequencies
(22°, 88°, 220°, and 439° at 0.5, 2, 5, and 10 Hz). Overall,
the average peak complex-spike responses to ×0 stimuli at all four
frequencies were well fit as occurring 122 msec after
R×0 (Fig. 5, open arrows), and
the average peak complex-spike responses to ×2 stimuli were well fit
as occurring 122 msec after R×2 (Fig. 5,
filled arrows). We constrained the reference points
R×0 and R×2 to be
180° apart so that a single time delay would have the same meaning
for both ×0 and ×2 stimuli. Although R×0 and
R×2 were obtained by fitting the complex-spike
responses, they correspond to points on the vestibular stimulus that
coincide, within 30°, with peak activity of the primary afferents in
the contralateral and ipsilateral vestibular nerves, respectively. On
average, peak firing in the primary afferents leads peak ipsiversive
head velocity by ~15° at 0.5 Hz and by ~55° at 8 Hz (Fernandez
and Goldberg, 1971 ; Lisberger and Pavelko, 1986 ).
Correlation of complex-spike and simple-spike activity
during learning
Comparison of Figures 3 and 5 reveals that the correlation of
simple-spike and complex-spike activity discriminates ×0 from ×2
stimuli during a subset, but not all of the stimulus frequencies tested. At 5 Hz, simple-spike and complex-spike activity were approximately in phase during the ×2 stimulus (Figs. 3C,
5C, filled symbols) and 180° out of phase
during the ×0 stimulus (+ and X symbols). At 10 Hz
(Figs. 3D, 5D), simple-spike and complex-spike activity were in phase during the ×0 stimulus and 180° out of phase
during the ×2 stimulus. At 0.5 Hz (Figs. 3A, 5A)
and 2 Hz (Figs. 3B, 5B), simple-spike and
complex-spike activity were 180° out of phase during both ×0 and ×2
stimuli. Thus, the correlation of simple-spike and climbing-fiber
signals discriminated stimuli that increase the gain of the VOR from
stimuli that decrease the gain of the VOR at high stimulus frequencies,
such as 5 or 10 Hz, but not at lower frequencies, such as 0.5 or 2 Hz.
Even at the higher stimulus frequencies, the simple-spike and
climbing-fiber signals failed the second criterion for signals that
guide learning, of evincing similar patterns of activity during all
stimuli that induce similar learned changes in the VOR.
Computational analysis of plasticity mechanisms driven by the
correlation of climbing-fiber activity and vestibular signals
The only pair of signals examined that discriminated ×0 from ×2
stimuli at each stimulus frequency was the correlation of climbing-fiber (complex-spike) and vestibular signals. Therefore, this
is the only pair of signals that potentially could guide learning
across the full range of sinusoidal stimulus frequencies that induce
learning. Moreover, the fits to Equations 1 and 2 suggest that a single
plasticity mechanism must be tuned to climbing-fiber activity that
follows activity in vestibular pathways by ~100 msec if it is to
account for all motor learning in the VOR. To assess a number of
factors that could affect this conclusion, we present a computational
analysis of the features a plasticity mechanism must have to permit the
correlation of climbing-fiber and vestibular signals to guide
learning.
First, we must consider how the vestibular stimuli might be represented
at the sites of plasticity. This issue is of particular importance in
the cerebellar cortex, because the responses of vestibular parallel
fibers have not been described, and the question of how to identify
granule cell recordings in behaving animals has not been resolved. In
vestibular primary afferents, sinusoidal vestibular stimuli are
represented by sinusoidal modulation of firing rate. At frequencies of
0.5, 2, 5, and 10 Hz, firing rate leads ipsiversive head velocity by
phases that average ~15°, 25°, 40°, and 60° (Fernandez and
Goldberg, 1971 ; Lisberger and Pavelko, 1986 ). At each stimulus
frequency, however, the population of primary afferents exhibits a
range of phases (Fernandez and Goldberg, 1971 ; Lisberger and Pavelko,
1986 ). In particular, some afferents show more sensitivity to
acceleration and hence more phase lead in their firing relative to head
velocity. Furthermore, at the sites of plasticity in the vestibular
nuclei and cerebellar cortex, the neural representation of the
vestibular stimuli may be carried by neurons with an even broader range
of responses. For example, the vestibular mossy fiber inputs to the
floccular complex and secondary vestibular afferents in the vestibular
nuclei can respond in phase with primary afferents from either the
ipsilateral or contralateral vestibular nerve (Shimazu and Precht,
1966 ; Lisberger and Fuchs, 1978b ; Miles et al., 1980a ). In addition,
vestibular mossy fiber inputs might be extensively filtered by circuits
in the cerebellar cortex to yield vestibular parallel fibers with a
wide range of response phases. Therefore, vestibular inputs with a
broad range of response phases could be available to plasticity mechanisms.
We demonstrate that a plasticity mechanism tuned to a 100 msec delay
between its vestibular and climbing-fiber inputs is required to account
for motor learning in the VOR, even if the vestibular inputs do exhibit
a broad range of response phases. We further show that this tuning must
be implemented in the plasticity mechanism itself and not by using
neural circuits to delay the incoming vestibular signals.
Neural circuit model
In our simulations, we consider a single Purkinje cell with
36 vestibular parallel-fiber inputs, five of which are illustrated in
Figure 6. We assume that each parallel
fiber exhibits sinusoidal modulation of its firing rate during a
sinusoidal head velocity stimulus. Each parallel fiber has a unique
phase of peak activity, distributed evenly from 90° to +260° with
respect to head velocity:
|
(3)
|
where t is time, and is the frequency of the
vestibular stimulus. Activity in each parallel fiber varies from 0 to
2. Peak activity in PF0 coincides with peak
ipsiversive head velocity, and more positive phase values ( )
correspond to parallel fibers with progressively more phase lag. Our
simulations thus consider the full range of possible response phases in
the vestibular parallel fibers.

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Figure 6.
Schematic showing several simulated vestibular
parallel-fiber (PF) inputs to a single Purkinje
cell (PC). The trace above each parallel
fiber shows its activity during sinusoidal head rotation about a
vertical axis. The dashed vertical line marks the time
of peak ipsiversive head velocity. Activity in
PF lags peak ipsiversive head velocity by
degrees. Each PF synapses onto the
Purkinje cell with a weight w .
|
|
Equations 4-7 below are a formal description of widely accepted
principles about functional connectivity in the circuit for the VOR. We
used these equations to calculate the predicted changes in the VOR
resulting from changes in the weights of the vestibular inputs to the
Purkinje cell from parallel fibers with different phases. We assume
that the VOR-driven eye movement response before learning is equal in
amplitude and opposite in direction to head velocity
(H). Thus, during a sinusoidal vestibular stimulus of amplitude A, the prelearning VOR-driven eye movement is
described by:
|
(4)
|
Positive values for H(t) and
VORpre(t) represent ipsiversive head
or eye velocities. The VOR-driven eye movement response after learning
(VORpost) is equal to the sum of the
prelearning VOR (VORpre) and the change
in the VOR attributable to learning ( VOR):
|
(5)
|
Activation of Purkinje cells in the floccular complex produces
ipsiversive eye movement by inhibiting neurons in the direct VOR
pathways through the brainstem (Baker et al., 1972 ; Fukuda et al.,
1972 ; Highstein, 1973 ; Ito et al., 1977 ; Lisberger et al., 1994a ), so
the learned change in the VOR-driven eye movement response attributable
to a learned change in the activity of the Purkinje cell can be
described by:
|
(6)
|
where K is a constant >0 (K = 1.0 in
all simulations).
We can describe the learned change in activity of the Purkinje
cell attributable to learned changes in the parallel-fiber weights
as:
|
(7)
|
where w is the synaptic weight from
PF to the Purkinje cell. Note that the model
calculates only the changes in Purkinje cell activity
( PC(t)) and parallel-fiber weights ( w ) attributable to learning. Therefore,
we need not make any assumptions about their absolute values
(PC(t) and w ) or about
the contribution of VOR pathways that are not modified by learning.
A critical feature of the circuit for the VOR captured in Equations
3-7 is that the timing of activity in a Purkinje cell will determine
the effect of that activity on the gain of the VOR. Purkinje cell
activity drives ipsiversive eye movement (or, equivalently, it reduces
contraversive eye movement). Enhanced ipsiversive eye movement during
contraversive head movement constitutes an increase in the gain of the
VOR. Enhanced ipsiversive eye movement (reduced contraversive eye
movement) during ipsiversive head movement constitutes a decrease in
the gain of the VOR, and thus:
Increasing Purkinje cell activity during
contraversive head movement increases the gain of
the VOR.
Increasing Purkinje cell activity during
ipsiversive head movement decreases the gain of
the VOR.
The timing of Purkinje cell activity relative to head movement is
determined by the balance of synaptic input from parallel fibers that
fire at different phases of the head movement. Thus, if multiple
parallel-fiber weights are changed, the effect on the VOR will depend
on the change in the balance of synaptic strength in vestibular
parallel fibers with different phases. A relative increase in the
synaptic strength of parallel fibers that fire most during
contraversive head velocity will increase the gain of the VOR. A
relative increase in the synaptic strength of parallel fibers that fire
most during ipsiversive head velocity will decrease the gain of the
VOR. We will consider primarily the effects of synaptic depression
rather than potentiation and the corresponding principles:
If depression is greater in the parallel fibers that fire
most during contraversive head velocity, then the gain of
the VOR decreases.
If depression is greater in the parallel fibers that fire
most during ipsiversive head velocity, then the gain of the
VOR increases.
Figures 7 and
8 illustrate the above principles by
showing the predicted effects on the VOR for changes in the weights of individual parallel fibers with different phases. Figure 7 illustrates the values of the variables in Equations 3-7 during two cycles of a
sinusoidal vestibular stimulus (H). In each
panel, the synaptic weight of one of the 36 parallel fibers
was decreased: PF0 in A,
PF90 in B, and
PF180 in C. In Figure 7, the
bottom three traces show the predicted effects
of changing the weight of that single parallel fiber on Purkinje cell
activity during the vestibular stimulus ( PC), the change
in the VOR-driven eye velocity response to the vestibular stimulus
( VOR), and the change observed in the postlearning VOR
(VORpost, solid traces)
compared with the prelearning VOR (VORpre,
dashed traces). Decreasing the weight of a parallel
fiber that exhibits elevated activity during ipsiversive head movement
(Fig 7A, w0 = 0.5) increases the
gain of the VOR. Decreasing the weight of a parallel fiber that
exhibits elevated activity during contraversive head movement (Fig.
7C, w180 = 0.5) decreases the
gain of the VOR. Changing the weight of a parallel fiber that lags peak
ipsiversive head velocity by 90° (Fig. 7B,
w90 = 0.5) produces no change in gain and a
relatively large change in the phase of the VOR.

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Figure 7.
Predicted learned changes in the VOR for
a reduction in the weight of parallel fibers that fire at different
phases of the vestibular stimulus. Traces representing
the variables in Equations 3-7 are shown for a reduction in the weight
of a parallel fiber whose activity peaks during ipsiversive head
velocity (A, w0 = 0.5),
for a reduction in the weight of a parallel fiber whose activity lags
ipsiversive head velocity by 90° (B,
w90 = 0.5), and for a reduction in the
weight of a parallel fiber whose activity peaks during contraversive
head velocity (C, w180 = 0.5). H, Head velocity;
PF0 , PF90 ,
PF180, activity in parallel fibers lagging
ipsiversive head velocity by 0° (A), 90°
(B), and 180° (C);
PC, learned change in activity of the Purkinje cell
evoked by the vestibular stimulus; VOR, learned
change in the VOR-driven eye velocity;
VORpre, eye velocity driven by vestibular
stimulus before learning (dashed traces);
VORpost, eye velocity driven by
vestibular stimulus after learning (solid traces).
For H, VOR,
VORpre, and VORpost
traces, upward deflection represents ipsiversive
(I) head or eye velocity, and
downward deflection represents contraversive
(C) head or eye velocity. For PF
and PC traces, upward and
downward deflections represent increases and decreases
in neural activity. Vertical dashed lines in
A, B, and C mark the time
of peak activity in PF0,
PF90, PF180,
respectively.
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Figure 8.
Predicted learned changes in the gain
(A) and phase (B) of the
VOR, plotted as a function of the phase of the vestibular parallel
fiber (PF) undergoing synaptic depression
(LTD) (Eq. 7, w = 0.1). Peak activity in a parallel fiber of phase 0° coincides with
peak ipsiversive head velocity. Larger phase values correspond to
parallel fibers with progressively more lag relative to head velocity.
A, Change in the gain of the VOR, plotted as the gain
after synaptic depression divided by the gain before synaptic
depression. Values greater than one represent increases in gain; values
less than one represent decreases in gain. B, Change in
the phase of the VOR, plotted as the difference between the phase
before synaptic depression and the phase after depression. Positive
values represent increased phase lag (in degrees), negative values
represent increased phase lead.
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Figure 8 summarizes the changes in the gain (A) and
the phase (B) of the VOR that are predicted for
reductions in the weights of individual parallel fibers whose activity
peaks at different phases of the vestibular stimulus. Changes in the
gain and phase of the VOR were obtained by first computing
VORpost(t) and measuring its
amplitude and phase. The gain of the VOR after learning was then
computed as the amplitude of
VORpost(t) divided by the amplitude of H(t). This postlearning gain value was also
equal to the change in VOR gain (post/pre),
because the gain of the VOR before learning was assumed to be 1.0 (Eq. 4). Note that computation of
VORpost(t) involves summation of
multiple sine waves (Eqs. 3-7) and that the amplitude of
VORpost(t) depends on both the
amplitude and phase of those sine waves. In Equation 5, for example,
the amplitude of VORpost(t) is not
equal to the sum of the amplitude of
VORpre(t) and the amplitude of
VOR(t), unless
VORpre(t) and
VOR(t) have the same phase. Therefore, an
analytical solution for gain would be quite complicated, and we elected
instead to compute VORpost(t) using
Equations 3-7 and then to measure its amplitude and phase in the same
way it was done in the behavioral experiments (Raymond and Lisberger,
1996 ). The change in phase of the VOR was computed as the difference
between the phase of VORpre(t) and
the phase of VORpost(t).
For each parallel fiber phase , changes in the gain and phase of the
VOR predicted for a reduction in the weight of that one parallel fiber
were computed from Equations 3-7 with w = 0.1. Depression of the weights of vestibular parallel fibers with
different phases predicted different effects on the VOR. The change in
VOR gain (Fig. 8A) was a sinusoidal function of the
phase of the vestibular parallel fiber whose weight was changed, with
the maximal increase in gain predicted when the depressed parallel
fiber carried vestibular signals in phase with ipsiversive head
velocity and the maximal decrease predicted when the depressed parallel
fiber carried signals in phase with contraversive head velocity. The
change in the phase of the VOR (Fig. 8B) was zero for
modification of parallel-fiber weights that produced maximal increases
or decreases in gain and was maximal for modification of parallel-fiber
weights that produced zero change in gain.
Simultaneous plasticity mechanism
Figures 7 and 8 illustrate that to understand how plasticity
mechanisms with different features will affect the gain of the VOR, we
need to calculate how those plasticity mechanisms will change the
relative weights of vestibular parallel fibers that exhibit peak
activity during different phases of the vestibular stimulus. The first
plasticity mechanism evaluated was one that decreased the weight of a
parallel fiber in proportion to the level of activity in that parallel
fiber at the time of a climbing-fiber spike:
|
(8)
|
where T1,
T2, ... ,
Tj, ... , Tk
are the times of spikes in the climbing fiber, and B is a
constant >0. To avoid possible artifacts that might result from using
any type of fit to approximate the climbing-fiber responses, the values
of Tj were obtained from the actual
complex-spike times, recorded to a resolution of 1 msec, during a
60-120 sec epoch of a ×0 or ×2 stimulus. Each
Tj was used once in a simulation, and division
by k normalized for the number of climbing-fiber spikes used
in each simulation. Multiplication by B resulted in
synaptic weight reduction [long-term depression (LTD)] rather than
potentiation [long-term potentiation (LTP)], and a value of
B of 0.25 was chosen to yield changes in VOR amplitude that
approximately matched those observed in behavioral experiments (Raymond
and Lisberger, 1996 ). The complex-spike recordings from nine HGVPs each
provided one set of Tj values for each of the eight stimuli tested (×0 and ×2 stimuli at 0.5, 2, 5, and 10 Hz). For
a given stimulus, the set of Tj values was used
to compute the change in weight ( w ) for
each of the 36 parallel fibers from Equation 8, and the
w values were used to compute the
predicted changes in the VOR induced by each stimulus from Equations
3-7. No optimization was performed, and the model was not run
iteratively. We simply computed the effect of running the spike trains
we recorded through various types of model plasticity mechanisms.
Figure 9 summarizes the results of
simulations that used Tj values obtained from
the complex spike responses shown in Figure 4 to drive the simultaneous
plasticity mechanism. The two graphs on the left side of
Figure 9, A1 and A2, show
the predicted changes in the weights of the different vestibular
parallel fibers for 0.5 and 5 Hz stimuli. These two graphs are
summarized in Figure 9B, which plots the phase of the
parallel fiber with the greatest synaptic depression as a function of
the frequency of the ×0 and ×2 stimuli. Finally, the predicted
changes in all parallel-fiber weights were converted to predicted
changes in the VOR using Equations 3-7, and the predicted changes in
the gain of the VOR are plotted as a function of stimulus frequency in
Figure 9C.

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Figure 9.
Predicted synaptic and behavioral changes produced
by a plasticity mechanism driven by simultaneous activity in climbing
fibers and vestibular parallel fibers. Spike trains from the typical
climbing fiber, whose responses are shown in Figure 4, were used as the
input to the simultaneous plasticity mechanism (Eq. 8). Open
symbols, Predicted changes for the climbing fiber spike trains
present during ×0 stimuli; filled symbols, predicted
changes for the climbing fiber spike trains present during ×2 stimuli.
A, Predicted changes in the synaptic weights of parallel
fibers that fire at different phases of the vestibular stimulus.
A1, Changes predicted for 0.5 Hz stimuli.
A2, Changes predicted for 5 Hz stimuli.
B, Phase of the parallel fiber undergoing largest weight
reduction (LTD) as a function of the stimulus frequency. The
thin vertical lines to the right of the
graph mark the range of phases for ×0 stimuli at frequencies of 0.5, 2, 5, and 10 Hz, and the thick vertical lines represent
the range of phases for ×2 stimuli. C, Predicted
change in the gain of the VOR as a function of stimulus frequency.
Arrows of the same style mark results corresponding to
the same simulation.
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During a 0.5 Hz, ×0 stimulus, most Tj values
(complex spike times) coincided with contraversive head motion (Fig.
4A), so the greatest weight changes occurred in
parallel fibers that fired most vigorously during contraversive head
motion (Fig. 9A1,B, open
single arrows). As a result, the predicted change in
the VOR was an appropriate decrease in gain (Fig. 9C,
open single arrow). During the 0.5 Hz, ×2
stimulus, most Tj values coincided with
ipsiversive head motion (Fig. 4C), the biggest weight
changes occurred in parallel fibers that fired most vigorously during ipsiversive head motion (Fig.
9A1,B, filled
single arrows), and the predicted change in the VOR
was an appropriate increase in gain (Fig. 9C, filled
single arrow). Thus, as suggested previously (Ito, 1972 , 1982 ), a
plasticity mechanism driven by coincident activity in climbing fibers
and vestibular parallel fibers could account for the induction of
appropriate learned changes in the VOR by low-frequency stimuli.
In contrast, the simultaneous plasticity mechanism fails to predict the
induction of appropriate changes in the VOR by the activity of this
climbing fiber during the 5 Hz stimuli. During the 5 Hz, ×2
stimulus, most Tj values coincided with
contraversive head motion (Fig. 4D), so the parallel
fibers that fired during contraversive head motion underwent the most
weight reduction (Fig. 9A2,B,
filled double arrows). These changes in synaptic weight
predicted a decrease in the gain of the VOR (Fig. 9C,
filled double arrow), which is opposite to the
gain change observed experimentally. Similarly, the simultaneous
plasticity mechanism incorrectly predicted an increase in the gain of
the VOR when the complex spikes recorded during the 5 Hz, ×0 stimulus
(Fig. 4B) provided Tj values (Fig. 9C, double open arrow). Similar
computations were performed using Tj values
obtained from the complex-spike times recorded in the same cell during
2 and 10 Hz stimuli, and the results are plotted in Figure 9,
B and C. For these stimulus frequencies,
predicted changes in gain were in the correct direction.
Figure 9B illustrates that the parallel fiber undergoing the
biggest weight change varied with the frequency of the stimulus, as
well as the stimulus configuration (×0 vs ×2). For the climbing fiber
in this example, the parallel fibers undergoing the most depression
during ×2 stimuli at frequencies from 0.5 to 10 Hz spanned a range of
phases from 40° to 140° relative to ipsiversive head velocity,
with positive values representing phase lag (Fig. 9B,
filled symbols and thick vertical
line). As a result, an increase in the gain of the VOR was
correctly predicted for ×2 stimuli at some frequencies, but for ×2
stimuli at 5 Hz, a decrease in the gain was incorrectly predicted (Fig.
9C, filled symbols). Likewise, the parallel
fibers undergoing the most depression in response to ×0 stimuli at
frequencies from 0.5 to 10 Hz spanned a range of phases from 10° to
210° (Fig. 9B, open symbols and thin vertical line), and the simultaneous
plasticity mechanism failed to predict a decrease in the gain of the
VOR in response to the ×0 stimulus at 5 Hz (Fig. 9C,
open symbols).
We have focused on the parallel-fiber weights that underwent the
greatest decrease under each stimulus condition. Inspection of Figure
9, A1 and A2, reveals
that there were decreases in the weights of all parallel fibers. This
results from our use of a plasticity mechanism that yields exclusively
synaptic depression. We obtained the same effects on the gain of the
VOR with a mixture of increases and decreases in parallel-fiber weights
if we used a plasticity mechanism like that suggested by Bienenstock et
al. (1982) , which produced potentiation or depression depending on whether parallel-fiber activity was below or above its average level
when a climbing-fiber spike occurred. Furthermore, it is important to
note that a uniform decrease in all parallel-fiber weights would not
cause any change in the VOR.
We performed similar computations to those illustrated in Figure 9
using Tj values derived from the eight other
individual HGVPs in which complex-spike times were recorded during all
four stimulus frequencies. The results shown in Figure 9 are typical. For none of the nine cells did computations using the simultaneous plasticity mechanism predict appropriate gain changes for all stimulus
frequencies. Thus, a plasticity mechanism guided by coincident activity
in climbing fibers and vestibular inputs cannot account for the
induction of appropriate learned changes in the gain of the VOR across
the range of effective stimulus frequencies.
Nonsimultaneous plasticity mechanism
We next evaluated whether a plasticity mechanism tuned to
nonsimultaneous activity in climbing fibers and vestibular parallel fibers might provide consistent guidance for learning across the range
of effective stimulus frequencies:
|
(9)
|
where TPF-CF is a constant time delay we
will refer to as the parallel fiber to climbing fiber (PF-CF) interval.
When TPF-CF = 0, the nonsimultaneous plasticity
mechanism described by Equation 9 is equivalent to the simultaneous
plasticity mechanism of Equation 8. When TPF-CF 0, climbing-fiber spikes induce a change in the weight of each
parallel fiber proportional to the level of activity in that parallel
fiber TPF-CF milliseconds before (for positive TPF-CF) or after (for negative
TPF-CF) the climbing-fiber spike.
Figure 10 compares the results for
several different values of TPF-CF when complex
spike times from the example in Figure 4 provided the
Tj values used by the nonsimultaneous plasticity mechanism. Changes in the weights of each of the 36 parallel fibers were computed for the ×0 and ×2 stimuli from Equation 9, with TPF-CF = 50 msec (Fig.
10A,D),
TPF-CF = 100 msec (Fig.
10B,E), or TPF-CF = 200 msec (Fig.
10C,F). As in Figure 9B, the
top panels of Figure 10 plot the phase of the
vestibular parallel fiber that underwent the largest reduction in
weight as a function of the stimulus frequency. The predicted changes
in all the parallel-fiber weights were used to compute predicted
changes in the gain of the VOR from Equations 3-7 and were plotted as
a function of the stimulus frequency in the bottom
panels of Figure 10. When TPF-CF was
100 msec, parallel fibers with a phase close to 180° (those that fire
most during contraversive head velocity) underwent the greatest weight
reduction for ×0 stimuli at all frequencies tested, and parallel
fibers with a phase of ~0° (those that fire most during ipsiversive
head velocity) underwent the greatest weight reduction for all ×2
stimuli (Fig. 10B). There was no overlap in the sets
of parallel fibers undergoing the greatest weight reduction in response
to the ×0 versus ×2 stimuli (thin and thick
vertical lines at right edge of
graph). These changes in parallel-fiber weights for
TPF-CF = 100 msec predicted consistent decreases
in the gain of the VOR in response to the ×0 stimuli and consistent increases in the gain of the VOR in response to the ×2 stimuli for the
full range of stimulus frequencies included in the experiments (Fig.
10E). In contrast, when TPF-CF = 50 or 200 msec, there was considerable variation in the phase of the
parallel fibers undergoing the greatest weight changes for ×0 or ×2
stimuli at different frequencies, and there was overlap in the range of
parallel fibers undergoing the largest weight reductions in response to
×0 versus ×2 stimuli (Fig.
10A,C). These changes in
parallel-fiber weights predicted appropriate gain changes at some
frequencies and inappropriate gain changes at other frequencies (Fig.
10D,F).

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Figure 10.
Predicted synaptic and behavioral changes for a
plasticity mechanism driven by nonsimultaneous activity in climbing
fibers and vestibular parallel fibers. Spike trains from the typical
climbing fiber in Figure 4 were used as the input to the
nonsimultaneous plasticity mechanism (Eq. 9). Reduction in the
parallel-fiber weights was proportional to the activity in the parallel
fiber at some interval (TPF-CF)
before a spike in the climbing fiber. Results are shown for three
different values of TPF-CF: 50, 100, and 200 msec. A-C, Phase of the parallel fiber undergoing
largest synaptic weight reduction as a function of the stimulus
frequency. The thin vertical lines to the
right of each graph mark the range of phases for ×0
stimuli at frequencies of 0.5, 2, 5, and 10 Hz, and the thick
vertical lines represent the range of phases for the ×2
stimuli. D-F, Predicted change in the gain of
the VOR as a function of stimulus frequency. Open
symbols, Predicted changes for the climbing-fiber spike trains
present during ×0 stimuli; filled symbols, predicted
changes for the climbing-fiber spike trains present during ×2
stimuli.
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Figure 11 delimits the range of values
for the PF-CF interval (TPF-CF) that
predicted appropriate changes in the gain of the VOR using the
complex-spike times from the example in Figure 4 as the input
Tj values. These ranges were obtained from
computations performed using values of TPF-CF
from 250 to 250 msec, at intervals of 10 msec. The bold
trace in Figure 11A plots the predicted
change in the gain of the VOR for a ×0 stimulus at 0.5 Hz as a
function of the PF-CF interval. For this low-frequency ×0 stimulus, a
decrease in the gain of the VOR was predicted for all PF-CF intervals
examined. Figure 11B plots the predicted change in
the gain of the VOR for a ×0 stimulus at 2 Hz (bold
trace) and replots the prediction for 0.5 Hz (light
trace) on the same graph for comparison. Figure 11,
C and D, adds the predictions for ×0 stimuli at
5 and 10 Hz (bold traces), and replots the predictions
for lower frequencies as light traces. Figure 11,
E-H, plots the predictions for ×2 stimuli in the same
manner.

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Figure 11.
Range of PF-CF intervals (range of values for
TPF-CF) yielding appropriate changes in the VOR.
Spike trains from the typical climbing fiber in Figure 4 were used as
the input to the nonsimultaneous plasticity mechanism (Eq. 9).
Predicted changes in the gain of the VOR for ×0 stimuli
(A-D) and ×2 stimuli
(E-H) are plotted as a function of the value of
TPF-CF. A, E,
Predictions for 0.5 Hz stimuli. B, F,
Predictions for 2 Hz stimuli (bold traces) and 0.5 Hz
stimuli (thin traces). C,
G and D, H, Predictions
for 5 and 10 Hz stimuli (bold traces), with predictions
for lower frequencies replotted (thin traces).
Shaded regions in each graph mark the range of values
for TPF-CF that yielded appropriate
predicted changes in the gain of the VOR for all stimuli at or below
the indicated frequency.
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|
We define as "effective" any PF-CF interval that predicts decreases
in the gain of the VOR for all ×0 stimuli and increases in gain for
all ×2 stimuli. Any PF-CF interval with a trace plotting above 1.0 for a ×0 stimulus or below 1.0 for a ×2 stimulus cannot be
considered effective, because that PF-CF interval fails to satisfy the
criterion of predicting a change in the gain of the VOR in the
experimentally observed direction across all stimulus frequencies. The
shaded regions in each panel of Figure 11 mark successive approximations of the range of effective PF-CF intervals as
additional stimulus frequencies are considered. These shaded regions
show that the inclusion of more and higher stimulus frequencies increasingly narrows the range of PF-CF intervals that could be effective. For ×0 stimuli, values of TPF-CF
from ~90 to 130 msec predicted decreases in the gain of the VOR at
all stimulus frequencies tested (Fig. 11D). For ×2
stimuli, values of TPF-CF from ~80 to 120 msec
predicted increases in the gain of the VOR at all stimulus frequencies
tested (Fig. 11H). Other values of
TPF-CF predicted inappropriate changes in the
gain of the VOR at one or more stimulus frequency. The computations
predicted only small changes in the phase of the VOR, <20° for all
values of TPF-CF and all stimulus frequencies
(not plotted).
Figure 12 summarizes the effective
PF-CF intervals estimated for the climbing-fiber inputs to each of the
nine HGVPs in which complex-spike responses to all four stimulus
frequencies were recorded. Each bold horizontal
line in Figure 12 shows the range of values of
TPF-CF that yielded appropriate changes in the
gain of the VOR at all four frequencies when a different climbing fiber provided the input Tj values to the
nonsimultaneous plasticity mechanism. For all nine climbing fibers, a
range of values of TPF-CF around 100 msec
predicted appropriate changes in gain for both ×0 and ×2 stimuli. For
five cells, a TPF-CF value of approximately 100 msec consistently predicted increases in the gain of the VOR for
×2 stimuli. In addition, this value of TPF-CF
predicted consistent decreases in gain for ×0 stimuli for one of the
climbing fibers. It is likely that this extra range of values for
TPF-CF at approximately 100 msec would have
failed if we had tested with a greater number of stimulus
frequencies.

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Figure 12.
Range of PF-CF intervals (range of values for
TPF-CF) that yielded appropriate
predicted changes in the gain of the VOR for all four stimulus
frequencies tested (0.5, 2, 5, and 10 Hz). Each line
represents the range of effective values of
TPF-CF for one individual climbing fiber.
A, Range of values of TPF-CF
that yielded decreases in gain in response to ×0 stimuli.
B, Range of values of TPF-CF
that yielded increases in gain in response to ×2 stimuli.
|
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Figure 12 shows unequivocally that a value for
TPF-CF of 0 msec failed to predict appropriate
changes in VOR gain for even a single climbing fiber. Therefore,
plasticity mechanisms tuned to coincident activity in climbing-fiber
and vestibular parallel-fiber pathways cannot provide consistent
guidance for learning in the VOR. To account for learning under all
stimulus conditions tested, a plasticity mechanism should be
specifically "tuned" to climbing-fiber activity that follows
activity in the vestibular inputs by ~100 msec. The small difference
between this 100 msec estimate of the time across which vestibular and
climbing-fiber inputs should be compared and the value of 122 msec
obtained from the fits to Equations 1 and 2 may be attributed to the
use of the actual time of each complex spike for the simulations versus
a sinusoidal fit of the complex-spike responses in Equations 1 and
2.
Could the simultaneous plasticity mechanism be used if circuit
properties delayed the vestibular parallel fiber inputs to Purkinje
cells?
One potential implementation of the nonsimultaneous plasticity
mechanism would be to use neural circuit properties to delay the
vestibular signals in the parallel fibers and then use a simultaneous plasticity mechanism to change synaptic weights. However, Figure 13 illustrates that this mechanism
would introduce delays in the learned, parallel-fiber-mediated eye
movements that would result in incorrect changes in the VOR. The
effects of delaying the vestibular signals in the parallel fibers on
the predicted changes in the VOR are shown in Figure 13 for ×2 stimuli
at 0.5 Hz (left) and 5 Hz (right). For the
purpose of illustration, we used only two vestibular afferents in this
simulation, one whose activity peaked during peak ipsiversive head
velocity and one whose activity peaked during peak contraversive head
velocity (Fig. 13, AFFi,
AFFc). We introduced a 100 msec delay between
activity in the primary vestibular afferents driven by head movement
and activity in the vestibular parallel fibers driven by the primary
afferents (Fig. 13, PFi,
PFc). This 100 msec delay translates into a
phase lag of 18° at 0.5 Hz and 180° at 5 Hz, causing elevated
activity in PFi to coincide with elevated
climbing fiber activity (CFR) during ×2 stimuli at both
frequencies. Therefore, a simultaneous LTD plasticity mechanism would
produce the most synaptic depression in the PFi
during ×2 stimuli at both frequencies. The weights of the two parallel
fibers (wi,
wc) were initially set to an equal and
arbitrary value. The ×2 stimuli at both frequencies induced more
depression in wi than in
wc. This frequency-independent change in the
balance of input to the Purkinje cell from parallel fibers driven by
ipsiversive and contraversive head movement can be seen by comparing
PFi × wi and
PFc × wc before (Fig.
13, dashed trace) and after (Fig. 13, solid
trace) learning at both frequencies.

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Figure 13.
Predicted synaptic and behavioral
changes for a simultaneous plasticity mechanism when a 100 msec delay
was introduced in the vestibular parallel-fiber signals. Predictions
were calculated for ×2 stimuli at 0.5 and 5 Hz, using two parallel
fibers whose vestibular signals lagged ipsiversive or contraversive
head velocity by 100 msec. H, Head velocity;
AFFi, AFFc,
activity in vestibular afferents that fire in phase with ipsiversive
and contraversive head velocity, respectively;
PFi, PFc,
activity in parallel fibers whose responses are delayed 100 msec
relative to those in AFFi,
AFFc (note that the different time scales in
the left and right panels affect the
apparent size of the 100 msec shift); CFR, average
responses in the climbing fiber shown in Figure 4;
PFi × wi,
PFc × wc, input
to the Purkinje cell from each of the vestibular parallel fibers before
(dashed trace) and after (solid trace)
learning, computed as activity in the parallel fiber multiplied by its
synaptic weight; PC, learned change in the response
of the Purkinje cell to the head velocity stimulus;
VOR, learned change in the VOR-driven eye velocity;
VORpre (dashed trace), eye
velocity elicited by the head velocity stimulus before learning;
VORpost (solid trace), eye
velocity elicited by the head velocity stimulus after learning. For
H, VOR,
VORpre, and
VORpost traces, upward
deflection represents ipsiversive
(I) head or eye velocity, and
downward deflection represents contraversive
(C) head or eye velocity. For AFF,
PF, and PC traces,
upward and downward deflections represent
increases and decreases in neural activity. Vertical
dashed lines mark the time of peak activity in
PFi to highlight its phase relationship to
H and to CFR at stimulus frequencies of
0.5 and 5 Hz.
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|
We then used Equations 4-7 to determine how the reduced weights
of the delayed vestibular parallel-fiber signals would affect the gain
of the VOR. Comparison of VORpost (Fig. 13,
solid trace) and VORpre
(dashed trace) shows a correct prediction of a learned increase in the gain of the VOR for the ×2 stimulus at 0.5 Hz and an
incorrect prediction of a learned decrease in the gain of the VOR for
the ×2 stimulus at 5 Hz. Delaying the vestibular parallel fiber inputs
to Purkinje cells delays the effect of those vestibular inputs on eye
movements so that they are 180° late at 5 Hz. Elevated activity in
PFi coincided with ipsiversive head movement at
0.5 Hz, but the 100 msec delay caused elevated activity in
PFi to coincide with contraversive head movement
at 5 Hz. Thus, reduction in the synaptic weight of
PFi had opposite effects at the two frequencies,
causing an increase in the gain of the VOR at 0.5 Hz and a decrease at
5 Hz. This example illustrates that filtering or delaying the
vestibular signals by network properties cannot enable a plasticity
mechanism tuned to simultaneous climbing-fiber and vestibular inputs to
provide consistent guidance for motor learning in the VOR.
Effect of sharpness of tuning in the nonsimultaneous
plasticity mechanism
Finally, we analyze how learning would be affected by the
sharpness of tuning to the optimal TPF-CF of
~100 msec. In the above computations, plasticity was very sharply
tuned: the amount of plasticity induced in a parallel fiber by a spike
in a climbing fiber was solely determined by the activity in that
parallel fiber exactly TPF-CF milliseconds
before the climbing-fiber spike. Here, we modify the plasticity
mechanism so that the amount of plasticity induced by a spike in a
climbing fiber depends on parallel-fiber activity in a window of time
surrounding TPF-CF milliseconds before the
climbing-fiber spike. This is accomplished by convolving parallel-fiber activity with a Gaussian g(t), centered
TPF-CF milliseconds before the climbing-fiber
spike:
|
(10)
|
with B = 4 × 10 4. The
* represents convolution, which can be thought of as a
second-order process (e.g., the concentration of a second messenger),
rising and decaying in response to parallel-fiber activity.
The value of determines the sharpness of tuning of the plasticity
mechanism. Figure 14 shows the
predicted changes in the gain of the VOR as a function of , computed
using a value for TPF-CF of 100 msec. Each
panel in Figure 14 plots the predictions for a single
stimulus frequency. Each set of connected points represents the
predictions obtained from the complex-spike activity of an individual
HGVP during ×2 stimuli (Fig. 14, filled symbols) or
×0 stimuli (open symbols). For all stimulus
frequencies, the predicted change in the gain of the VOR was largest
for the smallest values of , which produced the sharpest tuning. As
the value of increased, the predicted change in the gain of the VOR
decreased, falling off more quickly for higher-stimulus frequencies
than for lower-stimulus frequencies. This can be understood by
considering the width of g(t) for different
values of . For = 1 msec, g(t) is large
for times very close to TPF-CF msec before the
climbing-fiber spike (Tj TPF-CF), and g(t)
is close to zero at all other times. For each climbing-fiber spike, the
weight change in a parallel fiber is almost entirely determined by its
activity within a few milliseconds of Tj TPF-CF. Therefore, the predicted changes in each
parallel fiber weight and in the VOR were very similar to those
predicted by the nonsimultaneous plasticity mechanism described by
Equation 9. For = 100 msec, g(t) is similar
in amplitude over a window of several tens of milliseconds around Tj TPF-CF. For 0.5 Hz
(Fig. 14A), this window is short compared with the
stimulus period of 2000 msec, and learning is preserved. However, for
higher frequencies, such as 5 or 10 Hz (Fig.
14C,D), the window covers much of the
stimulus period, and plasticity therefore depends more on the average
firing rate in each parallel fiber rather than on the timing of the
parallel-fiber activity. Thus, for values of that are large
relative to the period of the sinusoidal stimulus, the learning
mechanism fails to produce selective changes in the parallel fibers
that increase their activity at different times in the vestibular
stimulus, and there is less of a change in the gain of the
VOR.

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Figure 14.
Predicted change in the gain of the VOR as a
function of the width of tuning of the plasticity mechanism.
Predictions for stimulus frequencies of 0.5, 2, 5, and 10 Hz are shown
in separate plots. Responses of nine individual climbing fibers were
used as the input to the nonsimultaneous plasticity mechanism (Eq. 10),
with a fixed value for TPF-CF of 100 msec.
Reduction in the weight of a parallel fiber was proportional to
activity in that parallel fiber in an eligibility window centered 100 msec before a spike in the climbing fiber. Changes in the VOR predicted
from the changes in parallel fiber weights are shown for eligibility
windows of various widths, defined by values for of 0.001-1 sec
(width of tuning). Open symbols, Predicted changes for
the ×0 stimuli; filled symbols, predicted changes for
the ×2 stimuli.
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Behavioral studies have shown that ×0 and ×2 stimuli at a frequency
of 5 Hz are approximately comparable in their effectiveness in inducing
learning in the VOR as ×0 and ×2 stimuli at 2 Hz but that 10 Hz
stimuli are considerably less effective at inducing learning than 5 Hz
stimuli (Raymond and Lisberger, 1996 ). Figure 14 indicates that these
results are consistent with the plasticity mechanisms for the VOR
having = ~25 msec, which is below values of at which
predicted learning is significantly impaired for 5 Hz stimuli but above
the values of that predict highly effective learning at 10 Hz. For
= 25 msec, the width at half amplitude of
g(t) is ~60 msec.
Insensitivity of predictions to features of the model
Our recording results indicate that a plasticity mechanism driven
by simultaneous activity in climbing-fiber and vestibular parallel-fiber pathways cannot account for motor learning in the VOR.
The simulation results in Figures 6-12 illustrate this point for the
specific case in which vestibular parallel fibers exhibit sinusoidal
modulation in their firing and a broad range of response phases, but
the conclusion is not dependent on the particular form of the
vestibular representation at the site of plasticity. Because Purkinje
cell activity drives ipsiversive eye movement, a decrease in the
amplitude of the VOR would require a decrease in the excitatory drive
to Purkinje cells during contraversive head movement. This means
decreasing the synaptic strength of whichever parallel fibers fire most
vigorously during contraversive head movement, regardless of their
specific firing rate profiles or how those responses are driven by
various head movement parameters. During ×0 stimuli at 5 Hz, LTD
driven by simultaneous climbing-fiber and parallel-fiber activity could
not depress the parallel fibers active during contraversive head
movement, because the climbing fibers were not active during
contraversive head movement.
We confirmed that our fundamental conclusions were valid for other
types of vestibular representation by running simulations in which the
vestibular parallel fibers covered a more limited range of phases and
clustered in two populations whose activity peaked near peak
ipsiversive head velocity (V-i) and peak contraversive head velocity
(V-c), and simulations in which the parallel fibers exhibited
bursts of activity at different times in the head movement rather than
sinusoidally modulated firing rates. Results for these simulations were
similar to those in Figures 6-12.
We also want to emphasize that our analysis is not affected by the
controversy that has existed about the sites of plasticity for motor
learning in the VOR (Ito, 1993 ; Lisberger and Sejnowski, 1992 ). At
present, there is general agreement that the cerebellar cortex is one
likely site of plasticity (Ito 1993 ; Lisberger, 1994 ). However,
disagreement remains about the direction of changes in vestibular
sensitivity in the cerebellar cortex and about the contribution of
plasticity in the vestibular nucleus to learning. Therefore, it is
important to note that our analysis is independent of both the site and
the direction of plasticity. Our computational analysis focused on
plasticity in the cerebellar cortex. However, a similar analysis could
apply to plasticity in the vestibular nucleus, based on the finding
that climbing fiber collaterals may project to this brainstem region
(Balaban et al., 1981 ). Furthermore, we focused on plasticity
mechanisms for synaptic depression, but the same principles revealed by
our computational analysis also hold for plasticity rules that assume
other blends of decreases and/or increases in synaptic weights. Similar
results were obtained for simulations that used a unidirectional LTD
plasticity mechanism without threshold (Eq. 9), a unidirectional LTD
plasticity mechanism with a threshold for parallel fiber activity (data
not shown), or a bidirectional plasticity mechanism that produced LTD
for climbing-fiber spikes associated with a high level of
parallel-fiber activity and LTP for climbing-fiber spikes associated
with a low level of parallel fiber activity (data not shown).
 |
DISCUSSION |
Previously, two mechanisms of motor learning in the VOR had been
hypothesized. The first suggested that simultaneous activity in visual
climbing fibers and vestibular parallel fibers would induce LTD in the
cerebellar cortex that could mediate motor learning (Ito, 1972 , 1982 ).
The second suggested that coincident activity in vestibular inputs and
Purkinje cell simple-spike inputs to floccular target neurons
(FTNs) in the vestibular nuclei would mediate learning by guiding
plasticity at that site (Miles and Lisberger, 1981 ). These hypotheses
were based on observations of the neural signals present during
low-frequency visual-vestibular stimuli that induced learned increases
and decreases in the gain of the VOR. When we challenged the system
with a broader range of stimulus frequencies, both hypotheses failed to
account for learning. Our analysis suggests that either there is a
single mechanism of learning driven by nonsimultaneous climbing-fiber and vestibular activity or there are multiple mechanisms of learning driven by different combinations of neural signals.
Is motor learning in the VOR mediated by a single mechanism driven
by nonsimultaneous climbing-fiber and vestibular activity?
The climbing fiber recordings at high-stimulus frequencies (e.g.,
5 Hz) reveal that a plasticity mechanism driven by simultaneous activity in climbing-fiber and vestibular parallel-fiber pathways cannot account for motor learning in the VOR. The simulations further
demonstrate that a comparison of climbing-fiber spikes with the
vestibular signals present ~100 msec earlier contains the information
required to guide learning. The question of how to implement a neural
learning rule in the brain that compares events across time represents
a general challenge in linking cellular and systems-level analyses of
associative learning. Cellular studies have emphasized the importance
of temporal coincidence, of either presynaptic and postsynaptic
activity or of activity in two presynaptic inputs, in the induction of
associative plasticity. The assumption has been that plasticity
mechanisms that detect coincident neural activity would be useful for
detecting events that are paired in time during associative learning.
However, at the behavioral level, associative learning often involves
the detection and comparison of events that are related in time but
nonsimultaneous. For example, classical conditioning is most
effectively induced when an unconditioned stimulus (e.g., an electric
shock) follows a conditioned stimulus (e.g., a tone) by some nonzero
interval.
Learning in the VOR is analogous to classical conditioning in that the
pairing of two stimuli (head turns and visual image motion) results in
learned changes in the eye movement response to one of the stimuli
(head turns) (Raymond et al., 1996 ). Learning in the VOR is induced by
simultaneous head turns and image motion. However, visual processing
causes a delay of ~100 msec between image motion on the retina and
the representation of that motion in visual climbing-fiber activity at
the site of plasticity (Stone and Lisberger, 1990 ). Thus, for both
classical conditioning and motor learning in the VOR, a time interval
between two nonsimultaneous events must be bridged to enable
learning.
Models of classical conditioning have adopted two basic strategies for
bridging the time interval between nonsimultaneous events. The first
hypothesizes that circuit properties bridge the gap by delaying or
filtering neural signals related to one of the events. During
cerebellum-dependent classical conditioning of the eyelid response, for
example, mossy-fiber activity related to the conditioned stimulus
(tone) precedes climbing-fiber activity related to the unconditioned
stimulus (shock). It has been suggested that granule-Golgi pathways in
the cerebellum could delay and filter the mossy fiber signals so that
the resultant parallel-fiber activity would coincide with the
climbing-fiber activity (Fujita, 1982 ; Moore et al., 1986 ;
Chapeau-Blondeau and Chauvet, 1991 ; Buonomano and Mauk, 1994 ). A
cellular plasticity mechanism driven by simultaneous activity in
climbing-fiber and parallel-fiber inputs could then mediate learning. A
second hypothesis suggests that biochemical pathways bridge the gap
between nonsimultaneous events. For example, parallel-fiber activity
could cause the slow rise of a biochemical eligibility trace,
such as the concentration of a second messenger or phosphorylation of a
receptor, which in turn could determine the extent to which
climbing-fiber activity induces plasticity (Klopf, 1989 ; Bullock et
al., 1994 ; Fiala et al., 1996 ; Kettner et al., 1997 ). Peak eligibility
would then follow peak parallel-fiber activity, causing the plasticity
mechanism to be tuned to climbing-fiber activity that follows
parallel-fiber activity by some amount of time.
One might expect that for the VOR, a nonzero
TPF-CF in Equations 9 and 10 could be
implemented by either mechanism. However, we found that introducing a
delay in the vestibular signals carried by parallel fibers did not
work, because it delayed both the signals that guide plasticity and
their contribution to motor output. In contrast, if the delayed
representation of a stimulus used for the induction of plasticity is a
biochemical eligibility trace produced by nondelayed parallel-fiber
activity, then the timing of the learned behavior need not be delayed.
This latter property is required to account for learning in the VOR
induced by high-frequency stimuli.
The suggestion of an eligibility trace with a 100 msec delay is
difficult to reconcile with most cellular studies, which have used
electrical or pharmacological stimulation to study LTD in the
cerebellar cortex. These generally have found that LTD is most
effectively induced when climbing-fiber activity is simultaneous with
or precedes parallel-fiber stimulation (Ito et al., 1982 ; Ekerot and
Kano, 1985 , 1989 ; Sakurai, 1987 ; Schreurs and Alkon, 1993 ; Lev-Ram et
al., 1995 , 1997 ). Even reports that depression can be induced in the
cerebellar cortex when climbing-fiber stimulation follows
parallel-fiber stimulation by 100-250 msec (Chen and Thompson, 1995 ;
Shreurs and Alkon, 1996 ) cannot account for motor learning in the VOR.
It is not sufficient for a 100 msec delay between vestibular and
climbing-fiber activity to be effective at inducing plasticity. It must
be the most effective input configuration for inducing plasticity; that
is, it must induce the largest synaptic changes. A plasticity mechanism
that produced the same synaptic changes in vestibular parallel-fiber
inputs active 100 msec before climbing-fiber activity, as it did in
vestibular parallel-fiber inputs whose activity coincided with activity
in the climbing fiber, would fail to produce changes in the gain of the
VOR during learning with ×0 and ×2 stimuli at 5 Hz. To produce the
empirically observed learning in the VOR, tuning for the 100 msec
interval between activity in vestibular and climbing-fiber inputs must be sharp enough to change the balance between the populations of
vestibular inputs that fire at different times during the period of the
vestibular stimulus. Specifically, to account for the ability of 10 Hz
stimuli to induce some learning, a of < 25 msec was required (width at half-amplitude of ~60 msec) (Fig. 14).
Our data do not necessitate the abandonment of cerebellar LTD as a
putative cellular mechanism of learning in the VOR. However, our
analysis highlights the importance of new experiments to determine whether LTD in the functioning cerebellum has temporal contingencies suitable for guiding learning in response to the natural patterns of
input activity that are actually present during learning. Further experiments should also examine the possibility that plasticity in the
vestibular nucleus might be regulated by climbing-fiber and vestibular
inputs with the required temporal precision.
Is motor learning in the VOR mediated by multiple mechanisms driven
by different combinations of neural signals?
If plasticity in the functioning cerebellum is tuned to
simultaneous climbing-fiber and parallel-fiber activity, then there must exist at least two mechanisms for motor learning in the VOR that
contribute differentially to learning induced by high- and low-frequency stimuli. The results in Figure 3 indicate that the correlation of vestibular and Purkinje cell simple-spike signals cannot
account for the induction of learning by high-frequency stimuli but
could contribute to learning during low-frequency stimuli. Likewise,
the correlation of simple-spike and climbing-fiber signals cannot
account for all learning but could make a contribution during
high-frequency stimuli.
Several previous observations are consistent with the idea of multiple
mechanisms of learning in the VOR. First, behavioral studies have
suggested the existence of two components of learning in the VOR that
are differentially induced by high- and low-frequency stimuli (Raymond
and Lisberger, 1996 ). Second, different combinations of retinal image
movement and eye movement signals are available during low- versus
high-frequency stimuli (Raymond and Lisberger, 1997 ). During
low-frequency stimuli, visual tracking mechanisms greatly reduce the
amplitude of retinal image motion, and the eye movements during ×0 and
×2 stimuli are quite different (Fig. 1). During high-frequency
stimuli, visual tracking mechanisms fail to reduce retinal image
motion, and the eye movements are similar during ×0 and ×2 stimuli.
Third, there is considerable evidence that plasticity occurs at both
the cerebellar cortex and vestibular nucleus sites during motor
learning in the VOR (Dufosse et al., 1978 ; Miles et al., 1980b ;
Watanabe, 1984 ; Lisberger and Pavelko, 1988 ; Lisberger, 1994 ; Lisberger
et al., 1994b ,c ; Luebke and Robinson, 1994 ; Pastor et al., 1994 ;
Partsalis et al., 1995 ), and it seems possible that different
anatomical sites would use plasticity mechanisms that are driven by
different combinations of neural signals. Finally, the complex-spike
activity of most HGVPs was not modulated during ×0 or ×2 tracking of
a small spot at 0.2 Hz (Miles et al., 1980a ). This raises the
possibility that climbing fibers may not be able to guide motor
learning below a certain frequency range. To address this issue, it
will be necessary to record complex-spike responses at low frequencies
during ×0 and ×2 stimuli with a large visual stimulus like the one we
used in the present study.
Together, these results raise the possibility that the mechanisms
underlying learning during the low- and high-frequency stimuli may be
different. Learning could be guided by the correlation of the
vestibular input with either climbing-fiber activity or simple spikes
in the Purkinje cells during low-frequency stimuli, and it could be
guided by the correlation of climbing-fiber activity with either the
vestibular input or Purkinje cell simple spikes during high-frequency
stimuli. We are not suggesting that the brain analyzes the frequency of
the vestibular stimulus and selects from a menu of available
mechanisms. Rather, there may be multiple mechanisms that contribute
differentially depending on the available neural signals. The use of
multiple cellular mechanisms of plasticity and error signals may ensure
that learning can be induced by stimuli with a wide range of temporal
properties.
 |
FOOTNOTES |
Received Feb. 5, 1998; revised Aug. 17, 1998; accepted Aug. 20, 1998.
This work was supported by National Institutes of Health Grants
EY10198, EY03878 (S.G.L.), and DC03342 (J.L.R.), and a National Aeronautics and Space Administration Research Associate Fellowship (J.L.R.). We thank members of the Lisberger and Sejnowski laboratories and D. Buonomano, H. Mahncke, and R. Venturini for many helpful comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript. We especially thank M. Kahlon for input throughout the writing process.
Correspondence should be addressed to Jennifer L. Raymond, Department
of Physiology, Box 0444, University of California at San Francisco, San
Francisco, CA 94143.
 |
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