Disruption of human eyeblink conditioning after central cholinergic blockade with scopolamine.
Human (Homo sapiens) volunteers (N = 72) received saline, a low dose of oral scopolamine (0.6 mg), a high dose of oral scopolamine (1.2 mg), or a peripheral analogue (glycopyrrolate). They then underwent classical conditioning of the eyeblink response to a tone conditioned stimulus (CS) and a corneal airpuff unconditioned stimulus (UCS) in a delay conditioning paradigm. There was a dose-related decline in acquisition of the conditioned response. These drug-induced conditioning deficits were similar to those previously reported in rabbit eyeblink conditioning and could not be attributed to such nonassociative factors as changes in auditory thresholds to the tone CS, magnitude of reflexive blinks to the airpuff UCS, or to changes in spontaneous blink rates.
Department of Psychology, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts 01267.
P R
PR
Solomon
M E
ME
Groccia-Ellison
D
D
Flynn
J
J
Mirak
K R
KR
Edwards
A
A
Dunehew
M E
ME
Stanton
D000284:Administration, Oral; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D002799:Cholinergic Fibers / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D003215:Conditioning, Eyelid / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D008609:Mental Status Schedule; D008875:Middle Aged; D011950:Receptors, Cholinergic / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D012153:Retention, Psychology / Q000187:drug effects; D012601:Scopolamine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D009435:Synaptic Transmission / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology
D011950:Receptors, Cholinergic; D012601:Scopolamine