Functional MRI of Human Eyeblink Classical Conditioning in Children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders.

Prenatal alcohol exposure has been linked to a broad range of developmental deficits, with eyeblink classical conditioning (EBC) among the most sensitive endpoints. This fMRI study compared EBC-related brain activity in 47 children with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), partial FAS (PFAS), heavily exposed (HE) non-syndromal children, and healthy controls. All of the children had previously participated in two EBC studies conducted as part of our longitudinal study of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.

Functional MRI of cerebellar activity during eyeblink classical conditioning in children and adults.

This study characterized human cerebellar activity during eyeblink classical conditioning (EBC) in children and adults using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). During fMRI, participants were administered delay conditioning trials, in which the conditioned stimulus (a tone) precedes, overlaps, and coterminates with the unconditioned stimulus (a corneal airpuff). Behavioral eyeblink responses and brain activation were measured concurrently during two phases: pseudoconditioning, involving presentations of tone alone and airpuff alone, and conditioning, during which the tone and airpuff were paired.

Impaired delay and trace eyeblink conditioning in school-age children with fetal alcohol syndrome.

Background: Classical eyeblink conditioning (EBC) involves contingent temporal pairing of a conditioned stimulus (e.g., tone) with an unconditioned stimulus (e.