A growing body of evidence suggests that exposure to binge levels of ethanol during the brain growth spurt produces permanent deficits in both the structural and functional integrity of the cerebellum. In particular, Purkinje cells, which form the sole output of the cerebellar cortex to other brain areas, are disproportionately lost. Many of the tasks used to assess the functional impact of Purkinje cell loss are simple motor tasks, such as the rotorod and parallel bar tests. However, the precise cerebellar substrates engaged by these tasks are unknown. In contrast, a large body of evidence has been amassed on the substrates involved in a simple motor learning task, eyeblink classical conditioning. This research has shown that Purkinje cells, as well as the deep cerebellar nuclei, are critically involved in successful learning in eyeblink conditioning. The proposed research will use eyeblink conditioning procedure designed specifically to examine whether the timing of conditioned responses in adult rats is disrupted after early exposure to ethanol. Neural recording of Purkinje cells during this task will provide evidence regarding whether Purkinje cells in rats exposed to ethanol during the brain growth spurt encode the task differently from Purkinje cells in normal rats. This will allow inferences to be made regarding the functional integrity of Purkinje cells after early exposure to ethanol.
