The Journal of Neuroscience, November 1, 2000, 20(21):8218-8226
Developmental Changes in Eye-Blink Conditioning and Neuronal
Activity in the Inferior Olive
Daniel A.
Nicholson and
John H.
Freeman Jr
Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242
Neuronal activity was recorded in the dorsal accessory inferior
olive in infant rats during classical conditioning of the eye-blink
response. The percentage and amplitude of eye-blink conditioned
responses (CRs) increased as a function of age. The magnitude of the
neuronal response to the unconditioned stimulus (US) decreased with
age. There were also age-specific modifications of US-elicited inferior
olive neuronal activity during paired trials in which a conditioned
eye-blink response was performed. The results indicate that the
development of the conditioned eye-blink response may depend on dynamic
interactions between multiple developmental processes within the
eye-blink circuitry. Differences in the functional maturity of
olivo-cerebellar pathways may limit the induction of plasticity in the
cerebellum and thereby limit the development of eye-blink conditioned responses.
Key words:
ontogeny; brainstem; olive; learning; conditioning; eyeblink
Copyright © 2000 Society for Neuroscience 0270-6474/00/20218218-09$05.00/0