# Fast implicit and slow explicit learning of temporal context

## TL;DR

The study shows that eyeblink responses can learn quickly and adapt to context, challenging previous beliefs about cerebellar-based behaviors.

## Contribution

Demonstrates rapid and flexible temporal learning in eyeblink conditioning, bridging implicit and explicit cognitive processes.

## Key findings

- Eyeblink responses adjusted rapidly and precisely to changing contexts in each trial.
- Learning of eyeblink timing was faster than manual response learning.
- Cognitive strategies accelerated both eyeblink and manual response learning.

## Abstract

One is seldom aware of the anticipatory and preemptive feats that the eyeblink system achieves in daily life but it frequently protects the eye from projectiles gone awry and insects on apparent collision courses. This poor awareness is why predictive eyeblinks are considered a form of implicit learning. In motor neuroscience, implicit learning is considered to be slow and, eyeblink conditioning, in particular, is believed to be a rigid and inflexible cerebellar-dependent behavior. In cognitive neuroscience, however, implicit and automatic processes are thought to be rapidly acquired. Here we show that the eyeblink system is, in fact, capable of remarkable cognitive flexibility and can learn on more rapid timescales than previously expected. In a task where we yoked contextual learning of predictive eyeblinks and manual responses in humans, well-timed eyeblink responses flexibly adjusted to external context on each trial. The temporal precision of the predictive eyeblinks exceeded that of manual response times. Learning of the well-timed eyeblink responses was also more rapid than that for the manual response times. This pattern persevered with the use of a cognitive strategy, which seemed to accelerate both types of learning. These results suggest that behaviors associated with the cerebellar cortex that were previously believed to be inflexible and largely implicit, can demonstrate rapid and precise context-dependent temporal control.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1038/s41598-025-01664-1.