Concomitant eyeblink and heart rate classical conditioning in young, middle-aged, and elderly human subjects.
Pavlovian heart rate (HR) and eyeblink (EB) conditioning were assessed in 4 groups of Ss who differed in age: young = 19-33 years, young middle-aged = 35-48 years, old middle-aged = 50-63 years, and old = 66-78 years. A 100-ms corneal airpuff was the unconditioned stimulus and a 600-ms tone was the conditioned stimulus. A nonassociative control group received explicitly unpaired tone and airpuff presentations. All Ss were studied for 2 100-trial sessions separated by approximately 7 days. An impairment in acquisition of both the EB and HR responses occurred in the old and middle-age Ss, but all age groups showed significantly greater conditioning than did the control group. Slight increases in performance resulted from a 2nd session of training. These findings suggest an age-related impairment in a general associative process.
Durkin
M
M
William Jennings Bryan Dorn Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Columbia, South Carolina.
Prescott
L
L
Furchtgott
E
E
Cantor
J
J
Powell
D A
DA
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging; D001767:Blinking; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis