Neural activity in human eyeblink conditioning: an optically pumped magnetometer-based MEG study
Poster No:
1941
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Sophie Lin1, Tim Tierney2, Stephanie Mellor3, George O’Neill2, Sven Bestmann2, Gareth Barnes2, R Miall4
Institutions:
1University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, 2University College London, London, United Kingdom, 3University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, 4University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Introduction:
The cerebellum is essential for the acquisition of classical eyeblink conditioning. Learning is assumed to be achieved through complex spikes of Purkinje cells which 'teach' the association between unconditioned and conditioned stimuli (Ohmae & Medina 2015). Yet human electrophysiological evidence about this activity is largely lacking. Previously we showed that we could use optically pumped magnetometer-based MEG (OP-MEG) to detect human cerebellar activity during unconditioned eyeblinks (Lin et al., 2019). Here we investigated cerebellar OP-MEG during eyeblink conditioning.
Methods:
We used a 500 ms binaural tone as the conditioned stimulus (CS) followed by a brief air-puff delivered to outer canthus of a participant's eye as the unconditioned stimulus (US). A session consisted of a 200-trial baseline block (140 US-only trials, 50 CS-only trials, 10 paired CS-US trials) followed by four 200 trial acquisition blocks (190 CS-US trials and 10 CS-only trials), total 800 trials. 12-14 OPM sensors were used across the cerebellum in 4 participants.
Results:
We observed unconditioned stimulus-related evoked responses locating in the cerebellum (Figure. A-C). These evoked responses diminished during the acquisition of conditioned responses, which corresponds with previous observed changes of Purkinje cell activities in animals. We also observed evoked responses immediately before conditioned blinks in 3 out of 4 participants, which were also located in the cerebellum (Figure. D-F).
Conclusions:
In this pilot study we used OP-MEG to identify neural responses that are associated with classic eyeblink conditioning. We found attenuated US-related response after conditioning, with similarities to the complex spike firing rate changes observed in animal studies (Nicholson & Freeman, 2003). We did not find strong evidence of other neural substrates, such as correlates of simple spike suppression or nuclear activity. We speculate that there was insufficient conditioning during the recording session.
Learning and Memory:
Learning and Memory Other 2
Novel Imaging Acquisition Methods:
MEG 1
Keywords:
ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY
Learning
MEG
Perception
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
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Provide references using APA citation style.
Lin, C. H., Tierney, T. M., Holmes, N., Boto, E., Leggett, J., Bestmann, S., ... & Miall, R. C. (2019). Using optically pumped magnetometers to measure magnetoencephalographic signals in the human cerebellum. The Journal of physiology, 597(16), 4309-4324.
Nicholson, D. A., & Freeman, J. H. (2003). Addition of inhibition in the olivocerebellar system and the ontogeny of a motor memory. Nature Neuroscience, 6(5), 532–537