Classical Eyeblink Conditioning in Normal and Autistic Children

Abstract

Studies of classical eyeblink conditioning in normally developing infants and children demonstrate that the capacity for associative learning is present at birth and develops throughout childhood. Developmental changes also occur in the optimal ISI for conditioning and in the ability to condition using complex stimulus presentations, such as in trace conditioning and discrimination reversal. The presence of eyeblink conditioning in the newborn and subsequent development of the response corresponds to maturation of the cerebellum and hippocampus. In autism, a developmental disorder with subtle cerebellar abnormalities, eyeblink conditioning is abnormal. Persons with autism display facilitated conditioning of a short-latency eyeblink response. The observation that gene knockout mice display a similar profile of facilitated conditioning and short latency CRs suggest that there may be olivocerebellar abnormalities in autism. These cerebellar abnormalities may account for some of the behavioral manifestations of autism through deviant cerebellar — forebrain interactions. Further studies of eyeblink conditioning in persons with autism are needed to replicate the findings from delay conditioning and to evaluate learning patterns with manipulations of the conditioning parameters. These types of studies will contribute to our understanding of the behavioral effects of altered cerebellar and forebrain function in autism.