Cerebellar lesions affect lateral but not medial septal activity during rabbit eyelid conditioning

Multiple unit activity was monitored in the medial and lateral septal nuclei during classical conditioning of the rabbit nictitating membrane (NM)/eyelid using paired presentation of a tone conditioned stimulus and an air puff unconditioned stimulus. Left cerebellar interpositus nucleus lesions prevented acquisition of learned responses when paired training was given to the left NM but not when training was switched to the right NM. Interpositus lesions also prevented the development of significant conditioning-related activity in the lateral septum but did not block stimulus-evoked unit activity in the medial septum.