Systemic delivery of (1R-1-benzo thiophen-5-yl-2[2-diethylamino)-ethoxy] ethanol hydrochloride (T-588) prevented long-term depression (LTD) of the parallel fiber (PF)-Purkinje cell (PC) synapse induced by conjunctive climbing fiber and PF stimulation in vivo.However, similar concentrations of T-588 in the brains of behaving mice and rats affected neither motor learning in the rotorod test nor the learning of motor timing during classical conditioning of the eyeblink reflex. Rats given doses of T-588 that prevented PF-PC LTD were as proficient as controls in learning to adapt the timing of their conditioned eyeblink response to a 150-or 350-ms change in the timing of the paradigm. The experiment indicates that PF-PC LTD under control of the climbing fibers is not required for general motor adaptation or the learning of response timing in two common models of motor learning for which the cerebellum has been implicated. Alternative mechanisms for motor timing and possible functions for LTD in protection from excitotoxicity are discussed.cerebellum ͉ eyeblink ͉ field potentials ͉ rotorod A longstanding hypothesis concerning cerebellar function has been the proposal that it serves as the repository for new motor skills through plasticity of the parallel fiber (PF)-Purkinje cell (PC) synapse (1, 2). In the prevailing hypothesis of ''cerebellar learning,'' the acquisition of new skills is controlled by climbing fibers (CFs), which function to depress the strength of the PF-PC synapse when the two afferents are conjointly active. The cerebellar learning hypothesis has inspired much research since the demonstration, in vivo, that near-synchronous activation of CFs and PFs by direct electrical stimulation depressed the strength of the excitatory potentials triggered by PFs in PCs (3). Because the depression required repeated pairings of CF and PF synaptic input and was retained for many hours, the phenomenon has been termed cerebellar long-term depression (LTD) and has been invoked to explain the acquisition and lifetime retention of many motor skills, including learned motor timing, reflex adaptation, and procedural and implicit learning (4).A substantial body of evidence has established the necessary intracellular events that produce PC LTD in vitro, and these events have been assumed to relate to motor learning in vivo. Moreover, a recent experiment showed that mouse PCs genetically modified to lack protein kinase C (PKC) function could not undergo LTD (5, 6); when such transgenic mice were tested in classical eyeblink conditioning, they were unable to learn the appropriate motor timing of conditioned eyeblinks [conditioned response (CR)] (7). That finding, complemented by the finding that cerebellar decortication also impaired the learned motor timing of CRs (8), has sustained the hypothesis that PF-PC LTD is required for motor learning. However, it is also evident that, up to this time, it has not been determined whether LTD occurs in awake animals as they acquire and retain new motor skills. Thus, it has been diffic...

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