Learning and Timing of Voluntary Blink Responses Match Eyeblink Conditioning

Abstract Can humans produce well-timed blink responses to a neutral stimulus voluntarily, without receiving any blink-eliciting, unconditional, stimulus? And if they can, to what degree does classical eyeblink conditioning depend on volition? Here we show that voluntary blink responses learned in tw...

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Main Authors:	Anders Rasmussen, Dan-Anders Jirenhed
Format:	article
Language:	EN
Published:	Nature Portfolio 2017
Subjects:	Medicine R Science Q
Online Access:	https://doaj.org/article/9f9c673bb8304c7a9d8c27e7de1a885b
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:9f9c673bb8304c7a9d8c27e7de1a885b2021-12-02T16:06:44ZLearning and Timing of Voluntary Blink Responses Match Eyeblink Conditioning10.1038/s41598-017-03343-22045-2322https://doaj.org/article/9f9c673bb8304c7a9d8c27e7de1a885b2017-06-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-03343-2https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Can humans produce well-timed blink responses to a neutral stimulus voluntarily, without receiving any blink-eliciting, unconditional, stimulus? And if they can, to what degree does classical eyeblink conditioning depend on volition? Here we show that voluntary blink responses learned in two paradigms that did not involve any unconditional blink-eliciting stimuli, display timing that is as good, or better than, the timing of blink responses learned in a standard eyeblink conditioning paradigm. The exceptional timing accuracy likely stems from the fact that, in contrast to previous studies, we challenged our participants to blink in a timed manner, and not merely to blink so as to avoid the corneal air puff. These results reveal a remarkable level of voluntary control over a simple movement, and they challenge the view that learning during eyeblink conditioning is necessarily automatic and involuntary.Anders RasmussenDan-Anders JirenhedNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 7, Iss 1, Pp 1-7 (2017)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Anders Rasmussen Dan-Anders Jirenhed Learning and Timing of Voluntary Blink Responses Match Eyeblink Conditioning
description	Abstract Can humans produce well-timed blink responses to a neutral stimulus voluntarily, without receiving any blink-eliciting, unconditional, stimulus? And if they can, to what degree does classical eyeblink conditioning depend on volition? Here we show that voluntary blink responses learned in two paradigms that did not involve any unconditional blink-eliciting stimuli, display timing that is as good, or better than, the timing of blink responses learned in a standard eyeblink conditioning paradigm. The exceptional timing accuracy likely stems from the fact that, in contrast to previous studies, we challenged our participants to blink in a timed manner, and not merely to blink so as to avoid the corneal air puff. These results reveal a remarkable level of voluntary control over a simple movement, and they challenge the view that learning during eyeblink conditioning is necessarily automatic and involuntary.
format	article
author	Anders Rasmussen Dan-Anders Jirenhed
author_facet	Anders Rasmussen Dan-Anders Jirenhed
author_sort	Anders Rasmussen
title	Learning and Timing of Voluntary Blink Responses Match Eyeblink Conditioning
title_short	Learning and Timing of Voluntary Blink Responses Match Eyeblink Conditioning
title_full	Learning and Timing of Voluntary Blink Responses Match Eyeblink Conditioning
title_fullStr	Learning and Timing of Voluntary Blink Responses Match Eyeblink Conditioning
title_full_unstemmed	Learning and Timing of Voluntary Blink Responses Match Eyeblink Conditioning
title_sort	learning and timing of voluntary blink responses match eyeblink conditioning
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2017
url	https://doaj.org/article/9f9c673bb8304c7a9d8c27e7de1a885b
work_keys_str_mv	AT andersrasmussen learningandtimingofvoluntaryblinkresponsesmatcheyeblinkconditioning AT danandersjirenhed learningandtimingofvoluntaryblinkresponsesmatcheyeblinkconditioning
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Learning and Timing of Voluntary Blink Responses Match Eyeblink Conditioning

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