Examination of bilateral eyeblink conditioning in rats.

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.

Functional MRI of cerebellar activity during eyeblink classical conditioning in children and adults

“…In this study, bilateral cerebellar cortical activations in children were detected in lobules VI, IX, and Crus I (Table I). In conjunction with lesion data [Freeman et al, 1995b;Gerwig et al, 2003], bilateral cerebellar activation in PET work [Logan and Grafton, 1995;Blaxton et al, 1996], and the presence of bilateral eyeblink CRs [Disterhoft et al, 1977;Campolattaro and Freeman, 2009], the present neuroimaging findings support the idea that contralateral regions of the cerebellar cortex may play a modulatory but not necessary role during EBC. The widespread fMRI activations in the current study suggest that delay EBC engaged multiple structures throughout the cerebellar cortex [Plakke et al, 2007;Gerwig et al, 2010].…”

Cross-modal savings in the contralateral eyelid conditioned response.

“…This result is consistent with previous findings showing that CRs produced on the same side as the US presentation tend to be larger (i.e., have greater amplitude) than those produced on the contralateral side (Campolattaro & Freeman, 2009a; Disterhoft et al, 1977; Hilgard & Campbell, 1936; Hilgard & Marquis, 1935; 1936). Additionally, experiments using eyeblink conditioning procedures with rabbits have previously observed facilitation of learning, evident by a rapid acquisition of eyeblink CRs in the newly reinforced eye, when training was continued with the same exact CS (Pearce et al, 1981) or same sensory modality CS (e.g., a tone CS; Lee et al, 2008).…”

“…Typically, CR percentage is greater, CR amplitude is larger and CR onset is shorter in the eyelid responses ipsilateral to US presentation compared to the eyelid responses contralateral to US presentation (Campolattaro & Freeman, 2009a; Disterhoft, Kwan, & Lo, 1977; Hilgard & Campbell, 1936; Hilgard & Marquis, 1935; 1936). However, when the US is redirected toward the other eye during paired training, CR expression in its eyelid rapidly reaches an asymptotic percentage, maximum peak amplitude and well-timed onset latency.…”

“…The same training procedures also produce cross-modal savings of eyeblink conditioning in rats (Brown & Stanton, 2008; Campolattaro & Freeman, 2009b; Campolattaro, Kashef, Lee, & Freeman, 2011). It is possible that rats show robust cross-modal savings in the contralateral eyelid during transfer training because, unlike rabbits, they tend to express eyeblink CRs bilaterally (Campolattaro & Freeman, 2009a). Therefore, the goal of the current experiment was to determine whether cross-modal savings occurs in rats when both the US location and CS modality are changed at the same time.…”

Discriminación bilateral de la respuesta condicionada de parpadeo en humanos

“…El presente estudio muestra que la amplitud de la respuesta condicionada en humanos es bilateral, lo cual no permitiría separar los efectos sensoriales de los emotivos en fenómenos como la habituación (Wagner & Vogel, 2010). Esto es consistente con los hallazgos experimentales que indican que esta estrategia no podría implementarse en cualquier especie dada la presencia de respuestas condicionadas bilaterales, como en el caso de monos, perros y ratas (Campolattaro & Freeman, 2009;Hilgard & Marquis, 1935). Esto se explicaría por la presencia de un componente contralateral de la RC en el curso del entrenamiento (Campolattaro & Freeman, 2009;Lee, Kim, & Wagner, 2009;McCormick, Lavond, & Thompson, 1982).…”