The remarkable recuperative capability of the cerebellum to compensate for lesion‐induced functional deficits has long been known. A well‐studied example is the vestibular compensation that follows unilateral labyrinthectomy, involving the cerebellar flocculus. More recently, however, the implications of cerebellar plasticity have expanded to include changes induced experience‐dependently. Various forms of motor adaptation and motor learning in physiological ranges are included in this term. For example, the vestibuloocular reflex exhibits a marked cerebellum‐mediated adaptability to a change imposed on the visual–vestibular relationship. Many other reflexes and voluntary movements exhibit similar plasticity via respective areas of the cerebellum. Moreover, certain morphological changes have been noted to occur under behavioural and social impositions as evidence of a role of cerebellar plasticity at such a high level of control. These various forms of cerebellar plasticity appear to be triggered by performance errors, which provoke synaptic plasticity in neuronal circuits of the cerebellum.

Key Concepts:

• In general terms, plasticity implies the capability of the nervous system to change its structure and function to adapt to new bodily and environmental conditions.
  
• The history of research on the cerebellum contains rich cases of compensatory recovery that occurred after lesioning the cerebellum or other tissues of the brain and body, which represent cerebellar plasticity in the original sense.
  
• The notion of cerebellar plasticity has now been expanded to include physiological changes occurring in cerebellar neurons under certain functional and environmental impositions, broadly embracing various forms of motor adaptation and motor learning.
  
• The various forms of cerebellar plasticity appear to be commonly underlain by unique error‐learning mechanisms of cerebellar neuronal circuits based on plasticity at individual synapses (synaptic plasticity).