Abstract
In the present study, we examined the role of the cerebellum in temporal adaptive learning during a coincident timing task, i.e., a baseball-like hitting task involving a moving ball presented on a computer monitor. The subjects were required to change the timing of their responses based on imposed temporal perturbations. Using paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation, we measured cerebellar brain inhibition (CBI) before, during, and after the temporal adaptive learning. Reductions in CBI only occurred during and after the temporal adaptive learning, regardless of the direction of the temporal perturbations. In addition, the changes in CBI were correlated with the magnitude of the adaptation. Here, we showed that the cerebellum is essential for learning about and controlling the timing of movements during temporal adaptation. Furthermore, changes in cerebellar-primary motor cortex connectivity occurred during temporal adaptation, as has been previously reported for spatial adaptation.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Dr. M. Shin-ya for his helpful comments regarding the custom-made program used for the CoIT task. Dr. M. Hirano was supported as a Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (15J03540). The authors thank Medical English Service Co., Ltd., Kyoto, Japan, for their help with the English language editing. This study was supported by Technology of Japan and a Grant-in-aid for scientific research (19K11578) from the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science.
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ST, MH, and KF conceived and designed the research; ST performed the experiments; ST analyzed the data; ST, MH, and KF interpreted the results of the experiments; ST prepared the figures; ST and KF drafted the manuscript; and ST, HM, and KF approved the manuscript.
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221_2020_5963_MOESM1_ESM.tif
Supplementary file1 Supplementary Fig. 1. The relationships between the CT and CE in each of the temporal perturbation conditions (A: green: cond F, blue: cond S, gray: ctrl). Linear regression lines for the relationships between the CE and CT in each of the conditions are shown. The linear regression lines were obtained from another 900 trials (300 trials conducted in each of the three conditions) performed by one of the authors, and we used them to recalculate the CE based on the CT if the subjects swung and missed the ball. The slope of the regression line became steeper as the rate of change in the swing speed increased (TIF 83 KB)
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Tanaka, Sy., Hirano, M. & Funase, K. Modulation of cerebellar brain inhibition during temporal adaptive learning in a coincident timing task. Exp Brain Res 239, 127–139 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-020-05963-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-020-05963-z