Classical conditioning with auditory discrimination of the eye blink in decerebrate cats.
Cats were subjected to complete lower brainstem transection, and were then tested for learning ability according to a classical conditioning paradigm. An auditory stimulus was systematically paired with a brief shock to the eyelid. Within a few weeks after the operation, the decerebrate cats could learn the conditioned response with a tone frequency discrimination and then a discrimination reversal. Our results support the notion that the brainstem reticular formation can support a conditioned response which isbehaviorally similar to that obtained in the intact animal.
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000818:Animals; D001933:Brain Stem / Q000502:physiology*; D002415:Cats; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology*; D003215:Conditioning, Eyelid / Q000502:physiology*; D003655:Decerebrate State / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology; D012193:Reversal Learning / Q000502:physiology