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Does emotion modulate the blink reflex in human conditioning? Startle potentiation during pleasant and unpleasant cues in the picture–picture paradigm
Author(s) -
Mallan Kimberley M.,
Lipp Ottmar V.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2007.00541.x
Subject(s) - psychology , moro reflex , valence (chemistry) , corneal reflex , conditioning , extinction (optical mineralogy) , audiology , classical conditioning , startle response , arousal , priming (agriculture) , reflex , developmental psychology , cognitive psychology , neuroscience , chemistry , germination , organic chemistry , medicine , statistics , mineralogy , mathematics , botany , biology
Emotional processes modulate the size of the eyeblink startle reflex in a picture‐viewing paradigm, but it is unclear whether emotional processes are responsible for blink modulation in human conditioning. Experiment 1 involved an aversive differential conditioning phase followed by an extinction phase in which acoustic startle probes were presented during CS+, CS−, and intertrial intervals. Valence ratings and affective priming showed the CS+ was unpleasant postacquisition. Blink startle magnitude was larger during CS+ than during CS−. Experiment 2 used the same design in two groups trained with pleasant or unpleasant pictorial USs. Ratings and affective priming indicated that the CS+ had become pleasant or unpleasant in the respective group. Regardless of CS valence, blink startle was larger during CS+ than CS− in both groups. Thus, startle was not modulated by CS valence.