Journal
NEUROSCIENCE
Volume 162, Issue 3, Pages 756-762Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2009.01.064
Keywords
fear conditioning; learning and memory; cerebellar vermis; Purkinje cells; LTP
Categories
Funding
- Italian Space Agency
- DCMC
- Italian Ministry of University and Research
- European Community [512039]
- Compagnia San Paolo Foundation
- Regione Piemonte
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Fear conditioning involves learning that a previously neutral stimulus (CS) predicts an aversive unconditioned stimulus (US). Lesions of the cerebellar vermis may affect fear memory without altering baseline motor/autonomic responses to the frightening stimuli. Reversible inactivation of the vermis during the consolidation period impairs retention of fear memory. In patients with medial cerebellar lesions conditioned bradycardia is impaired. In humans, cerebellar areas around the vermis are activated during mental recall of emotional personal episodes, if a loved partner receives a pain stimulus, and during learning of a CS-US association. Moreover, patients with cerebellar stroke may fail to show overt emotional changes. In such patients, however, the activity of several areas, including ventromedial prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate, pulvinar and insular cortex, is significantly increased relative to healthy subjects when exposed to frightening stimuli. Therefore, other structures may serve to maintain fear response after cerebellar damage. These data indicate that the vermis is involved in the formation of fear memory traces. We suggest that the vermis is not only involved in regulating the autonomic/motor responses, but that it also participates in forming new CS-US associations thus eliciting appropriate responses to new stimuli or situations. In other words, the cerebellum may translate an emotional state elaborated elsewhere into autonomic and motor responses. (C) 2009 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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