Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, Vol 50, Issue 1 P42-P50, Copyright © 1995 by The Gerontological Society of America
Longitudinal investigation of eyeblink classical conditioning in elderly human subjects
LS Ferrante and DS Woodruff-Pak
Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Philadelphia Geriatric Center, and Department of Psychology, Temple University.
Eyeblink classical conditioning (EBCC) is an important tool in the study of
learning, memory, and aging, but few longitudinal data have been collected
on EBCC in humans of any age. Our aim was to determine if EBCC would
remain stable across time. Fifteen subjects with an initial mean age of
83.2 years ("old-old") were tested three times in just over 2 years, and a
subset of 8 of these subjects were tested a fourth time after the third
year. Fifteen additional subjects with a mean age of 69.1 years
("young-old") were tested two times in just over one year. Subjects were
tested with identical procedures in the 400 msec delay EBCC paradigm.
Cognitively normal young-old and old-old adults showed stability in EBCC.
In the old-old group, poor EBCC (<25% conditioned responses; CRs)
predicted significantly poorer Blessed Information Memory Concentration
scores. Old-old subjects with poor initial EBCC were more likely to become
demented or die than were old-old subjects producing over 25% CRs.
