WVU study finds first report of learning-specific changes in DCN excitability in any species or task

The Department of Neuroscience’s Dr. Bernard Schreurs and his graduate student, Deidre O’Dell, colaborated with Desheng Wang, Carrie A. Smith-Bell, Lauren B. Burhans, and Roger W. Bell on, “Changes in membrane properties of rat deep cerebellar nuclear projection neurons during acquisition of eyeblink conditioning,” recently published in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences." This is the first report of learning-specific changes in DCN excitability in any species or task. The significance of this paper, as described by the authors is described below:

“Although large ensembles of neurons have been found to change as a function of learning and memory, localizing those changes to the individual neurons directly involved in a specific task has been challenging. Using whole-cell recording of deep cerebellar nuclear neurons (DCN) and a transsynaptic viral tracer, we found motor learning induced significant changes in membrane properties of rat DCN projection neurons including a reduced after-hyperpolarization amplitude and shortened latency for both evoked DCN action potentials and rebound spikes. These learning-specific changes in DCN excitability have not previously been reported in any species or task."

To read more about this work, find the article here!