Pavlovian conditioning: pigeon nictitating membrane
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Updated: Jun 7, 2026

Whisker-signaled Eyeblink Classical Conditioning in Head-fixed Mice
Published on: March 30, 2016
Rosalind Burns1, José E Burgos, John W Donahoe
1University of Massachusetts/Amherst, Amherst, MA 01002, United States.
Abstract:
A new Pavlovian conditioning preparation was developed using the nictitating membrane of the restrained pigeon. Either visual or auditory stimuli served as conditioned stimuli (CSs) with an unconditioned stimulus (US) of a puff of air to the cornea. Movement of the nictitating membrane constituted the conditioned and unconditioned responses (CR and UR). Conditioning was studied with the Kamin blocking procedure. In agreement with findings from other conditioning preparations, responding to the redundant stimulus was attenuated relative to a stimulus that received the same number of CS-US pairings in a compound-conditioning procedure. Although response attenuation occurred, substantial individual variation was observed within the blocking procedure, a finding with some precedent in the experimental literature. Theoretical analysis and neural-network simulations indicate that inter-subject variation in response attenuation may result from differences in the extent to which contextual stimuli contribute to the functional CS.
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