The role of the middle cerebellar peduncle in acquisition and retention of the rabbit’s classically conditioned nictitating membrane response

Abstract

In the present study, the middle cerebellar peduncles of 20 rabbits were lesioned before or after the left nictitating membrane/eyelid response was classically conditioned. Naive animals with completely destructed peduncles were unable to learn; in trained animals, the CRs were abolished using tones, lights, tactile stimulation, or pontine stimulation as conditioned stimuli. These results support the hypothesis that conditioned stimulus information is projected to the cerebellum via mossy fibers in the middle cerebellar peduncle during classical conditioning of discrete, somatic responses. © 1986, Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.