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Examination of Bilateral Eyeblink Conditioning in Rats
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Examination of Bilateral Eyeblink Conditioning in Rats

Matthew M Campolattaro and John H Freeman
Behavioral neuroscience, Vol.123(6), pp.1346-1352
12/2009
DOI: 10.1037/a0017314
PMCID: PMC2830096
PMID: 20001118
url
http://doi.org/10.1037/a0017314View
Open Access

Abstract

This experiment monitored eyelid responses bilaterally during delay eyeblink conditioning in rats. Rats were given paired or unpaired training with a tone or light conditioned stimulus (CS) and a unilateral periorbital shock unconditioned stimulus (US). Rats given paired training acquired high levels of conditioned responses (CRs), which occurred in both eyelids. However, acquisition was faster, and the overall percentage of CRs was greater in the eyelid that was ipsilateral to the US. CRs in the eyelid ipsilateral to the US also had shorter onset latencies and larger amplitudes than CRs in the contralateral eyelid. Both eyelids consistently showed high percentages of unconditioned responses (UR) to the US, and the UR amplitude decreased across training sessions in the paired group. The present study demonstrated that CRs occur robustly in both eyelids of rats given eyeblink conditioning, which is similar to previous findings in humans and monkeys. The results also showed that conditioning occurs more prominently in the eyelid that is ipsilateral to the US, which is similar to previous findings in humans, monkeys, dogs, and rabbits.
Cerebellum learning Pavlovian conditioning timing

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