Adaptation of whisker movements requires cerebellar potentiation

The ability to adapt while exploring the world is critical for survival, yet how it comes about is unclear. Here we show that a whisker protraction reflex can be elicited following rostro-caudal pad stimulation, and that short-term kinematics of this reflex are enhanced when coherent complex spike activity of cerebellar Purkinje cells occurs in crus 1. Instead, the long-term kinematics can be adapted by tetanic stimulation and this adaptation is largely controlled by changes in the simple spike activity of Purkinje cells in crus 2. Increases in whisker protraction correlate with preceding increases in simple spikes in trial-by-trial variation analysis, and both behavioral and spike adaptation are absent in independent mouse models in which postsynaptic long-term potentiation of Purkinje cells is blocked. These differentially distributed short-term and long-term cerebellum-dependent modulations of whisker movements may come into play during coordination and adaptation of natural behaviors like gap crossing and prey capture. Impact statement Romano et al. show direct coupling between increased cerebellar activity and motor learning, with both phenomena being absent in independent mouse models lacking parallel fiber LTP.