Trace eyeblink conditioning in abstinent alcoholic individuals: effects of complex task demands and prior conditioning.
Chronic misuse of alcohol affects an integrated neural circuit supporting the formation of associative memories acquired during eyeblink classical conditioning (R. McGlinchey-Berroth et al., 1995). The authors of this study investigated single-cue trace conditioning in amnesic and nonamnesic abstinent alcoholic individuals who either were or were not trained in a single-cue delay conditioning task. Overall, untrained alcoholic participants were severely impaired in acquisition, and alcoholic participants previously trained in single-cue delay conditioning performed similarly to untrained control participants. Individual performance in acquisition varied significantly within task but was relatively stable between the trace and delay tasks; there were nonamnesic and amnesic alcoholic participants who acquired responses at a normal rate in both delay and trace conditioning. The similarity of performances in delay and trace conditioning suggests a common source of impairment across both tasks.
McGlinchey
Regina E
RE
Geriatric, Research, Education, and Clinical Center, Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System, Boston, MA 02130, USA. rmcglin@bu.edu
Fortier
Catherine B
CB
Capozzi
Stephen M
SM
Disterhoft
John F
JF
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000368:Aged; D000425:Alcohol Amnestic Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology*; D003215:Conditioning, Eyelid / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D003710:Demography; D005108:Extinction, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology