Cerebellar involvement in eyeblink classical conditioning in humans

The role of the ipsilateral cerebellum in human eyeblink conditioning was investigated using the 400-ms delay paradigm and testing 14 cerebellar patients (7 with unilateral lesions and 7 with bilateral lesions) and 20 control participants. Patients performed significantly worse with the ipsilesional eye than control participants but showed no difference when tested with the contralesional eye. Conditioned responses (CRs) totaled 14% for all patients in comparison with 60% for control participants. Data on timed-interval tapping for 6 patients and 14 control participants showed that clock variability was greater with the ipsilesional hand in patients. Only clock variability correlated significantly with percentage of CRs in control participants. Comparisons of paired associate learning and memory for 8 patients and 14 control participants revealed no significant differences. Results confirm that the ipsilateral cerebellum plays a role in eyeblink classical conditioning.