Proposed by Clara Driaï-Allègre
Koppen, J., Bayones, L., Runge, M., Klinkhamer, I., & Narain, D. (2024). Cerebellar encoding of prior knowledge of temporal statistics. bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory). https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.08.19.608550
This study focuses on predictive eyeblink conditioning, investigating how eyelid movements adapt to environmental uncertainty and the probabilities of events. Researchers observed that predictive eyeblinks adjusted according to the timing of stimuli presented. The study highlights the role of cerebellar Purkinje cells, which appear to reflect these statistical variations. Indeed, when Purkinje cells were silenced, it led to a disruption in predictive blinking, indicating the essential function of these cells in temporal statistical learning. Finally, the authors propose a model that emphasizes the significance of synaptic plasticity—specifically long-term depression (LTD) and long-term potentiation (LTP)—in how Purkinje cells encode and react to environmental statistics.
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