Eyeblink conditioning and systems consolidation: an ironic yet powerful pairing

Abstract

Systems consolidation involves a prolonged process of memory reorganization that appears to be distinctly related to declarative memory. Declarative memory can be sharply contrasted with simple delay eyeblink classical conditioning, a prototypical example of nondeclarative memory. Yet inserting a trace interval between the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli endows eyeblink (trace) conditioning with many features of declarative memory. Work in humans has established that trace conditioning requires declarative memory. Recently trace eyeblink conditioning in animals has become one of the most powerful methods to study systems consolidation. Thus, it is ironic that a substantially nondeclarative form of memory has been so instructive concerning the organization of declarative memory.