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Exploring the Neural Underpinnings of Eye-Blink Conditioning: Cerebellar, Hippocampal, and LC Contributions

Poster Session B - Sunday, March 30, 2025, 8:00 – 10:00 am EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Kaitlin McOwen1 (kaiti.mcowen@tamu.edu), Jessica Bernard1; 1Texas A&M University

Delay eye-blink conditioning is characterized by a co-termination of an unconditioned stimulus (tone) and conditioned stimulus (airpuff to the eye). By contrast, trace conditioning includes a brief interval between the termination of the unconditioned stimulus and onset of the conditioned stimulus. Successful trace conditioning requires the recruitment of the hippocampus in addition to the cerebellar involvement necessary in delay conditioning. Across forms of learning, attention and arousal are critical. Measures of pupil dilation contribute an indirect measure of norepinephrine release and in turn, locus coeruleus (LC) function. This additional measure contributes key insights regarding LC functioning and arousal in the study of classical conditioning. Here, we investigated pupil dilation during classical eyeblink conditioning in an initial pool of 78 young adults; 39 in the delay condition and 39 in the trace condition. We examined differences in pupil dilation between delay and trace forms of conditioning to explore LC contributions in cerebellar and hippocampal reliant forms of conditioning. Additionally, we examined the interaction between sex and condition on pupil dilation to examine the role of arousal in conditioning differences between sexes.

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March 29–April 1  |  2025

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