Golgi Cell Activity During Eyeblink Conditioning in Decerebrate Ferrets

Abstract

Golgi cells have a central position in the cerebellar cortical network and are indirectly connected to Purkinje cells, which are important for the acquisition of learned responses in classical conditioning. In order to clarify the role of Golgi cells in classical conditioning, we made extracellular Golgi cell recordings during different stages of conditioning, using four different conditional stimuli. Our results show that forelimb and superior colliculus stimulation, but not mossy fiber stimulation, evokes a short latency increase in Golgi cell firing. These results suggest that Golgi cells are involved in modulating input to the cerebellar cortex. There were however no differences in Golgi cell activity between naïve and trained animals, which suggests that Golgi cells are not intimately involved in the plastic changes that occur during classical conditioning. The absence of long latency effects of the conditional stimulus also questions whether Golgi cells contribute to the generation of a temporal code in the granule cells.