# Cerebellar Interactions with the Amygdala and Prefrontal Cortex during Learning

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF IOWA · 2020 · $374,781

## Abstract

Learning is how organisms adapt to changes in their environment and involves the coordination
of neural systems mediating cognition, emotion, and motor control. The major goal of the
proposed research program is to elucidate the neural circuit mechanisms underlying interactions
between cognitive, emotional, and motor systems during associative learning. Interactions
between these neural systems are particularly important because the context and emotional
significance of stimuli provide essential information for acquisition and performance of motor
responses. The breakdown of interactions between cognitive, emotional, and motor systems in
various neurological disorders can therefore have devastating consequences for learned
behaviors. The prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and cerebellum play significant roles in cognition,
emotional responses, and motor learning, respectively. The proposed research program
constitutes a comprehensive analysis of cerebellar interactions with the amygdala and prefrontal
cortex during associative motor learning. Our general conceptual framework is that the
cerebellum receives inputs from the amygdala and prefrontal cortex via the pons regarding
which stimuli are important and when they occur, and the cerebellum then sends error-driven
feedback to these forebrain systems to facilitate learning about important events. This
conceptual framework takes into account the bidirectional relationship between the cerebellum
and the relevant forebrain systems as well as interactions between forebrain systems. Multi-site
electrophysiology, pathway-specific optogenetics, and precise behavioral analyses will be
combined to investigate circuit-level interactions between the cerebellum, amygdala, and
prefrontal cortex during associative learning and extinction (inhibitory learning) training. The
proposed studies would significantly advance understanding of the neural circuit mechanisms
underlying cerebellar interactions with the forebrain. This would be a substantial contribution to
the field because it has been known that the cerebellum must interact with the forebrain in many
contexts that are crucial for everyday life such as learning, memory, planning, control of
emotions, and communication, but very little is known mechanistically about how the cerebellum
interacts with the amygdala and prefrontal cortex.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9893633
- **Project number:** 2R01NS088567-06
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF IOWA
- **Principal Investigator:** John H Freeman
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $374,781
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2015-02-01 → 2025-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9893633

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9893633, Cerebellar Interactions with the Amygdala and Prefrontal Cortex during Learning (2R01NS088567-06). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9893633. Licensed CC0.

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