Potentiation or diminution of discrete motor unconditioned responses (rabbit eyeblink) to an aversive pavlovian unconditioned stimulus by two associative processes: conditioned fear and a conditioned diminution of unconditioned stimulus processing

Abstract

In two experiments using the rabbit conditioned eyeblink preparation, the conditions under which a Pavlovian conditioned stimulus (CS) potentiates or diminishes the unconditioned response (UR) were examined. The results indicated that, after discrimination training (CS+ vs. CS-), the CS+ diminished UR amplitude at the training interstimulus interval (ISI). When CS+ trials were segregated into trials on which a conditioned response (CR) did or did not occur, the CS+ diminished the UR when it elicited a CR, but not when a CR failed to occur. When the CS-unconditioned stimulus (US) interval was lengthened to 10 s, the CS+ reliably potentiated the eyeblink UR on CR trials but did not potentiate responding on trials on which a CR was absent. The results are discussed in terms of the modulatory effects and temporal properties of conditioned fear and an associatively produced decrement in US processing.