Microsoft Word - JPBS541118033_z.docx

Learning and memory are the crucial cognitive functions, which equip animals for the ability to preserve our experiences of both knowledge and motor skills that we have learned. Eyeblink conditioning is a basis form of associative learning that conditions the eyeblink reflex to a neutral stimulus that predicts an aversive stimulus. With small manipulations, eyeblink conditioning procedures have been used as learning models of both declarative and non-declarative memories. The procedures can then be used to examine the basic mechanisms of memory and the pathophysiology of memory afflicted diseases, and to test new or alternative treatments of memory disorders. This paper introduced the methods of eyeblink conditioning as well as the memory circuitry responsible for mediating the memory, and the clinical applications of the procedures were also reviewed. J Physiol Biomed Sci. 2011; 24(2): 1-12