Electrophysiological Activity from the Eye Muscles, Cerebellum and Cerebrum During Reflexive (Classical Pavlovian) Versus Voluntary (Ivanov-Smolensky) Eye-Blink Conditioning

We report an experiment to investigate the role of the cerebellum and cerebrum in motor learning of timed movements. Eleven healthy human subjects were recruited to perform two experiments, the first was a classical eye-blink conditioning procedure with an auditory tone as conditional stimulus (CS) and vestibular unconditional stimulus (US) in the form of a double head-tap. In the second experiment, subjects were asked to blink voluntarily in synchrony with the double head-tap US preceded by a CS, a form of Ivanov-Smolensky conditioning in which a command or instruction is associated with the US. Electrophysiological recordings were made of extra-ocular EMG and EOG at infra-ocular sites (IO1/2), EEG from over the frontal eye fields (C3’/C4’) and from over the posterior fossa over the cerebellum for the electrocerebellogram (ECeG). The behavioural outcomes of the experiments showed weak reflexive conditioning for the first experiment despite the double tap but robust, well-synchronised voluntary conditioning for the second. Voluntary conditioned blinks were larger than the reflex ones. For the voluntary conditioning experiment, a contingent negative variation (CNV) was also present in the EEG leads prior to movement, and modulation of the high-frequency EEG occurred during movement. US-related cerebellar activity was prominent in the high-frequency ECeG for both experiments, while conditioned response-related cerebellar activity was additionally present in the voluntary conditioning experiment. These results demonstrate a role for the cerebellum in voluntary (Ivanov-Smolensky) as well as in reflexive (classical Pavlovian) conditioning.