A 7T Fmri Study in Humans
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1228 • The Journal of Neuroscience, January 21, 2015 • 35(3):1228–1239 Behavioral/Cognitive Cerebellar Cortex and Cerebellar Nuclei Are Concomitantly Activated during Eyeblink Conditioning: A 7T fMRI Study in Humans Markus Thu¨rling,1,2 Fabian Kahl,1 Stefan Maderwald,2 Roxana M. Stefanescu,1,2 Marc Schlamann,3 Henk-Jan Boele,4 Chris I. De Zeeuw,4,5 XJo¨rn Diedrichsen,6 Mark E. Ladd,2,7 Sebastiaan K. E. Koekkoek,4 and Dagmar Timmann1 Departments of 1Neurology, University Clinic Essen, 2Erwin L. Hahn Institute for MRI, and 3Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology and Neuroradiology, University Clinic Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, 45147 Essen, Germany, 4Department of Neuroscience, Erasmus University Medical Center, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 5The Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1105 BA Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 6Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, WC1N 3AR London, United Kingdom, and 7Division of Medical Physics in Radiology (E020), German Cancer Research Center, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany There are controversies whether learning of conditioned eyeblink responses primarily takes place within the cerebellar cortex, the interposed nuclei, or both. It has also been suggested that the cerebellar cortex may be important during early stages of learning, and that there is a shift to the cerebellar nuclei during later stages. As yet, human studies have provided little to resolve this question. In the present study, we established a setup that allows ultra-high-field 7T functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the cerebellar cortex and interposed cerebellar nuclei simultaneously during delay eyeblink conditioning in humans. Event-related fMRI signals increased con- comitantly in the cerebellar cortex and nuclei during early acquisition of conditioned eyeblink responses in 20 healthy human subjects. ANOVAs with repeated-measures showed significant effects of time across five blocks of 20 conditioning trials in the cortex and nuclei (p Ͻ 0.05, permutation corrected). Activations were most pronounced in, but not limited to, lobules VI and interposed nuclei. Increased activations were most prominent at the first time the maximum number of conditioned responses was achieved. Our data are consistent with a simultaneous and synergistic two-site model of learning during acquisition of classically conditioned eyeblinks. Because increased MRI signal reflects synaptic activity, concomitantly increased signals in the cerebellar nuclei and cortex are consistent with findings of learning related potentiation at the mossy fiber to nuclear cell synapse and mossy fiber to granule cell synapse. Activity related to the expression of conditioned responses, however, cannot be excluded. Key words: acquisition; cerebellum; eyeblink conditioning; fMRI; human; interposed nuclei Introduction tions of the cerebellum to the acquisition and expression of Eyeblink conditioning is widely used to understand how the cer- conditioned responses are a matter of ongoing discussion (for ebellum contributes to motor learning (for review, see Bracha et review, see, e.g., Delgado-García in Manto et al., 2012). There is a al., 2009; Thompson and Steinmetz, 2009). Animal studies show longstanding controversy whether learning primarily takes place that eyeblink conditioning depends on the integrity of the inter- within the cerebellar cortex ( for review, see Cooke et al., 2004; mediate cerebellum (Bracha et al., 2001). The relative contribu- Longley and Yeo, 2014), the interposed nuclei (for review, see McCormick and Thompson, 1984a; Christian and Thompson, 2003), or both (for review, see Freeman and Steinmetz, 2011). Received June 18, 2014; revised Sept. 12, 2014; accepted Oct. 11, 2014. Some findings suggest that the cerebellar cortex may be impor- Author contributions: M.E.L., S.K.E.K., and D.T. designed research; M.T., F.K., S.M., and D.T. performed research; tant during early stages of learning, and that there is a shift to the R.M.S.,J.D.,andS.K.E.K.contributedunpublishedreagents/analytictools;M.T.,F.K.,M.S.,H.-J.B.,andJ.D.analyzed data; C.I.D.Z., M.E.L., and D.T. wrote the paper. cerebellar nuclei during later stages (Medina et al., 2002). An ThisworkwassupportedbyGrantsoftheGermanResearchFoundationgiventoD.T.andM.E.L.(DFGTI239/10-1, active transfer process from the cerebellar cortex to the cerebellar 10-2) as part of the DFG Research Unit FOR 1581, by Mercator Research Center Ruhr, and by the Marie Curie Initial nuclei has also been proposed for adaptation of the vestibulo- Training Network “Cerebellar-Cortical Control: Cells, Circuits, Computation and Clinic.” H.-J.B., C.I.D.Z., and S.K.E.K. ocular reflex (for review, see Raymond et al., 1996; Kassardjian et are funded by Dutch Organization for Life Sciences (NWO-ALW), Behavioural Sciences (MaGW), Medical Sciences (ZonMW), and the European Community (ERC-advanced). We thank Siemens Healthcare for providing us with the al., 2005) and optokinetic nystagmus (Shutoh et al., 2006). Hu- Works-in-Progress package for fMRI with sinusoidal EPI at ultra-high-field. man imaging studies have shown a shift from the cerebellar cor- The authors declare no competing financial interests. tex to the cerebellar nuclei during early motor skill acquisition Correspondence should be addressed to Dr Dagmar Timmann, Department of Neurology, University (Doyon et al., 2002). Clinic Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Hufelandstrasse 55, 45147 Essen, Germany. E-mail [email protected]. As yet human studies have added little to the understanding of DOI:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2492-14.2015 the relative contributions of the cerebellar cortex and nuclei to Copyright © 2015 the authors 0270-6474/15/351228-12$15.00/0 the acquisition of conditioned eyeblink responses. Both studies in Thu¨rling et al. • 7T fMRI Study of Eyeblink Conditioning in Humans J. Neurosci., January 21, 2015 • 35(3):1228–1239 • 1229 Figure 1. Experimental eyeblink conditioning setup in the 7T MR scanner. Two small infrared light reflecting markers were attached to the eyelids (inset, top-left quadrant). Infrared light was applied via light sources outside the scanner (MRI utility room). Light reached the markers via a mirror system (mirror 1 and mirror 2 in the scanner room). Via the same mirror system, marker movements were recorded using a high-speed video camera that was positioned outside the scanner (MRI utility room). Air compressor and tone sources were located in the MRI control room. cerebellar patients and functional neuroimaging studies provide and interposed nuclei were simultaneously active during early good evidence that the cerebellar cortex contributes to acquisi- motor learning, which is consistent with their synergistic contri- tion of conditioned eyeblink responses (Ramnani et al., 2000; bution to the learning process. Potential underlying neuronal Gerwig et al., 2003; Dimitrova et al., 2008; Parker et al., 2012). mechanisms are discussed based on the existing animal literature Little is known about the involvement of the nuclei in humans. and current knowledge of the physiology of the blood oxygen- Human lesion studies are limited because pure lesions of the ation level-dependent (BOLD) signal. cerebellar nuclei are a rare exception (Timmann et al., 2009). In functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies robust Materials and Methods activations of the cerebellar nuclei are difficult to obtain because Participants of their small size and high iron content (Habas, 2010). A total of 27 young and healthy subjects participated (mean age: 24.3 Ϯ A series of recent developments in neuroimaging technologies 3.7 years, range: 19–35 years; 14 male, 13 female). All subjects were in our group now provide a powerful tool to address this ques- right-handed based on the Edinburgh handedness inventory (Oldfield, tion, because they allow for simultaneous recordings of activity 1971). Subjects were excluded who did not show significant eyeblink within the cerebellar cortex and nuclei, even while performing conditioning, defined as a total conditioned response (CR) incidence in eyeblink conditioning. The introduction of ultra-high-field MRI paired trials below spontaneous blink rate; for more details see below. Consequently, data of only 20 participants (mean age: 24.2 Ϯ 4.2 years, and the development of optimized normalization methods have range: 19–35 years; 9 male, 11 female) were included in statistical group made reliable fMRI studies at the level of the dentate nuclei pos- analysis. Informed consent was obtained from all participants. The study sible (Diedrichsen et al., 2011). In addition, we established a setup was approved by the local ethics committee. to perform and record delay eyeblink conditioning in a 7T MRI scanner in humans using a novel optical approach. Finally, nor- Eyeblink conditioning: experimental setup and data analysis malization methods were extended to the level of the interposed The conditioning system was custom-built by Neurasmus (Erasmus nuclei. Neuroscience, http://www.neurasmus.com/) as part of a scientific col- laboration. An optical solution was used to collect eyeblink responses. We tested the hypothesis that early acquisition of conditioned Two small infrared light reflecting markers (diameter 2.5 mm; Loligo eyeblink responses depends on the cerebellar cortex but not the Systems) were attached to the upper eyelids (Fig. 1, inset). Infrared light cerebellar nuclei. Cortical activation was expected to be exclu- was applied via light