Cerebellar climbing fibers encode expected reward size

Abstract

Climbing fiber inputs to the cerebellum encode error signals that instruct learning. Recently, evidence has accumulated to suggest that the cerebellum is also involved in the processing of reward. To study how rewarding events are encoded, we recorded the activity of climbing fibers when monkeys were engaged in an eye movement task. At the beginning of each trial, the monkeys were cued the size of the reward that would be delivered upon successful completion of the trial. We found increased climbing fiber activity during cue presentation when information about reward size was first made available. Reward size did not modulate activity at reward delivery. These results indicate that climbing fibers encode the expected reward size and suggest a general role of the cerebellum in associative learning beyond error correction.