Classical conditioning: the Rosetta stone for brain substrates of age-related deficits in learning and memory.

The three chapters on the use of classical conditioning paradigms to investigate neurobiological and behavioral substrates of memory impairments with aging are in close agreement on all key issues. Based on these chapters, it is argued here that classical conditioning of discrete behavioral responses in rabbit and other mammals is among the most promising animal models of the human condition in which to analyze brain mechanisms of normally occurring age-related deficits in learning and memory.