Classical conditioning after temporal lobe lesions in man: sparing of simple discrimination and extinction

Recent reports of impaired conditional discrimination learning in temporal lobectomy subjects have raised the question of response inhibition deficits in these patients. In the present study, left and right temporal lobectomy subjects and healthy controls completed an eyelid conditioning task, which required simple two-tone discrimination learning, followed by extinction. There were no group differences with regard to discrimination learning or extinction. General deficits in response inhibition are therefore not likely to account for the impairment in conditional discrimination observed in temporal lobectomy patients.