Flaten M A, Powell D A
Department of Psychology, University of Tromsø, Norway.
Exp Aging Res. 1998 Oct-Dec;24(4):387-410. doi: 10.1080/036107398244201.
Young (18-30 years) and elderly (63-88 years) human subjects received 70 trials of single-cue classical eyeblink conditioning (paired group), or 70 explicitly unpaired presentations of the tone conditioned stimulus (CS) and airpuff unconditioned stimulus (unpaired group). Before and after conditioning, reflex-eliciting white noise and corneal airpuff stimuli were presented alone or paired with the CS to investigate the effects of conditioning on eyeblink reflex amplitude. The results showed increased conditioned responses in the paired group compared to the unpaired group for the young but not the elderly subjects. There was, however, evidence of conditioned facilitation of noise-elicited reflexes in both young and elderly subjects. These data indicate that conditioned facilitation of the startle reflex may be a sensitive indicator of classical conditioning processes in human subjects.
年轻（18 - 30岁）和年长（63 - 88岁）的人类受试者接受了70次单线索经典眨眼条件反射试验（配对组），或70次明确的非配对呈现，即音调条件刺激（CS）和气吹非条件刺激（非配对组）。在条件反射前后，单独或与CS配对呈现引发反射的白噪声和角膜气吹刺激，以研究条件反射对眨眼反射幅度的影响。结果显示，与非配对组相比，年轻受试者的配对组条件反应增加，而年长受试者则没有。然而，在年轻和年长受试者中均有证据表明条件反射促进了噪声引发的反射。这些数据表明，惊吓反射的条件促进可能是人类受试者经典条件反射过程的一个敏感指标。
