Talk:Eyeblink conditioning

Extinction
When extinction occurs, does the LTD (long term depression) subside? Thepcnerd 17:11, 25 January 2006 (UTC) What is the time duration between the US onset and the behavioural eyeblink? thank you...


 * LTD is just one process that is thought to underlie learning, and, in all likelihood, there are multiple processes that work together at various levels to produce learning and extinction, which some consider to be a form of learning.


 * Regarding your second question, at shorter Interstimulus intervals (150-400 msec), the blink is very compacted in time, and maximal eyelid closure occurs at US onset. At longer ISIs, the blink is lower in amplitude, and it is sort-of extended over time.  Maximal closure may or may not occur at US onset because longer ISIs are harder for organisms to time.--129.237.138.216 18:18, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

merge with classical conditioning
I think this article and Fear conditioning can both be merged with classical conditioning as they are examples of the classical conditioning. Kpmiyapuram 12:03, 24 April 2007 (UTC)


 * A link from classical conditioning is a better idea because of the extensive knowledge base about brain function that has been built upon both fear and eyeblink conditioning. I put link from Classical conditioning to both eyeblink and fear conditioning.--Dentate 01:26, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

A merge is better than the current somewhat misleading title, as most "eyeblink" conditioning (and it can be called that in the literature) actually involves closing the nictitating membrane and not true blinking. I think a better option would be to move it to Trace conditioning, and have links from Classical conditioning to it. Benhocking 14:14, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

The NM thing is simply not true. In humans EBC is recorded with infrared blink detectors, and most other animals' blinks are now studied with Electromyogram wires. Also, a move to trace conditioning would not be relevant here. Instead, trace eyeblink conditioning should be a subtopic as it is thought to require a certain degree of awareness in humans, and it relies upon the hippocampus in addition to the cerebellum. I'll get to this when I have time, but I welcome help.--Dentate 01:26, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

I think that if some literature uses the phrase "eyeblink conditioning", then there should be an entry on it -- the entry can say that it's a misnomer if you like. I think there are many kinds of classical conditioning and they should not all be squished into one page. I'm fine with moving the main text to "trace conditioning", though. Bayle Shanks 04:04, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

I'm fine with all of this except the last sentence. --Dentate 01:26, 15 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Actually, I was thinking more along the line of a redirect, with a discussion in the article about how it is frequently called eyeblink conditioning, even though it usually involves the nictitating membrane instead of the eyelid. Ben Hocking (talk 19:51, 14 August 2007 (UTC)


 * This simply isn't correct, though. A blink is the result of synergistic activity from multiple muscles, and recording EMG from any of these muscles will give a highly accurate measure of the speed and magnitude of a blink - because the electrical activity is what is actually causing the behavioral blink.  EMG is used in all animals, and has even become the most common method for recording blinks in rabbits.  Previously, all rabbit blinks were measured with a potentiometer attached to the nictating membrane, which closes passively as a result of eyeball retraction.  This is also an accurate indicator of blinks, but EMG is a more direct measure and is now far more commonplace than the potentiometer.  It would be inaccurate to state that eyeblink conditioning is anything other than just that.  However, while a description of how all of the eye muscles work together to produce a blink is out of the scope of the article, a sentence could be added to mention the fact that some eyeblink conditioning uses pots to record the passive nm response.  I would actually like to add a section on methods for recording blinks.  This could include infrared used in humans, emg used in most animals, and potentiometers sometimes used in rabbits.--Dentate 13:30, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

cerebellar cortex, right?
"In the cortex, it is hypothesized that the plasticity correlated with delay conditioning is long-term depression of the synapse between parallel fibers and Purkinje neurons. (DS Woodruff-Pak, JT Green, SI Levin, & MH Meisler (2006). Behavioral Neuroscience, v120, 229-240.)"

I'm assuming you mean the cerebellar cortex when you say cortex here. I suggest the article be changed to read, "In the cerebellar cortex, ..." Bayle Shanks 03:58, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

I fixed this.--Dentate 01:20, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

I added to the article to cover several issues I see with the text. Number one, it's a giant wall of text. It definitely needs some sort of sectioning to look less like a whitepaper or essay. Number two, there are references cited in Harvard citations but the full citations aren't listed anywhere in the article. Half-references aren't much better (if any) than no references at all.

Also, please please please do not put "dummy sections" in an article, where you have a header and then "More on this later" or "work in progress." An article needs to look complete even if it isn't. If you don't have any data for a section when you're editing, don't put the section header in at all, and add the whole thing later. If you want to tell your fellow editors what your plans are for the article, like what sections or data you plan to add, then please use this talk page instead of the article itself. --Darkwind (talk) 22:01, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Okay. I didn't know most of this. This is my first wiki write. I totally agree with the wall of text thing. I just didn't have time to do anything about it. I welcome any help, though, as long as the information is correct. Most of what was in the text before I changed it was simply wrong. I left the citations in because I have the full citations that I'm working on inserting at the end. I will actually insert the citations into a discussion and maybe we can all work to put them into the correct format. I will delete the dummy sections if you haven't already and place them in a discussion. Thanks for the input. --Dentate 01:33, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Role of the Cerebellar Cortex
More information must be added regarding the anterior lobe (ANT) of the cerebellum.--Dentate 03:12, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Role of the hippocampus in trace conditioning
A section should be added about this.--Dentate 03:12, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Human Eyeblink Conditioning Studies
A section is warranted on this topic with subheadings that include how various populations of people learn. Elderly, Alzheimer's, Downs Syndrome, Schizophrenia, OCD, etc.--Dentate 03:12, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

History
A brief section on the history of eyeblink conditioning would be good, too.--Dentate 17:30, 15 August 2007 (UTC)