Classical conditioning of Purkinje cell responses in vitro produces in vivo-like simple spike suppressions during the conditional stimulus

An <i>in vitro</i> model of classical conditioning could improve our understanding of underlying mechanisms thanks to controlled pharmacological manipulation and negligeable perturbations from external networks. Here, using mice cerebellar slices and patch clamp recordings, we present a protocol for classical conditioning of Purkinje cells <i>in vitro</i> at room temperature. Repeated pairing of a parallel fiber conditional stimulus and a climbing fiber unconditional stimulus with parameters compatible with <i>in vivo</i> learning gives rise to a Purkinje cell simple spike suppression during the conditional stimulus that shares similarities with conditioned responses observed in live animals.