The inferior olive is essential for long-term maintenance of a simple motor skill

This study shows that the inferior olive (IO) is essential for maintaining a down-conditioned H-reflex in rats. It supports the hypothesis that IO and cortical inputs to cerebellum combine to produce cerebellar plasticity that produces cortical plasticity that produces spinal cord plasticity that reduces the H-reflex. This simple motor skill appears to depend on a hierarchy of plasticity that is guided by the IO and begins in the cerebellum. Comparable hierarchies might underlie other skills.