PubMed HealthSearch

PubMed · 957101

Vicarious eyelid conditioning.

Abstract

This study attempted to demonstrate that elicited electromyographic (EMG) reactions in observers may become conditioned to environmental events during the observation of a modeling sequence. Observers were shown a videotape of a model in a simulated direct eyelid discriminative conditioning situation involving adaptation, acquisition, and extinction trials. Various EMG measures were obtained in order to determine the occurrence of vicarious instigation and conditioning. The results demonstrated vicarious EMG eyelid responses. Also, the motor reactions were found to be localized to specific muscular activity rather than a result of general arousal. Some theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

G Bernal, S M Berger. 1976. Vicarious eyelid conditioning.. https://doi.org/10.1037/%2F0022-3514.34.1.62

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related citations

Cardiovascular phase relationships to the cortical event-related potential of schizophrenic, depressed, and normal subjects.

Cardiovascular phase, especially diastole, influences attention and the event-related potential (ERP) of the right hemisphere of the brain. Depression and schizophrenia are characterized by attentional deficits, unique lateralization of brain function, and deviant phase relationships of biological oscillators. In the present study, the ERP was recorded during stimulation triggered by diastole and systole in control (n = 16), depressed (n = 16), and schizophrenic (n = 9) subjects. Fifty tones were presented and subjects were instructed to count them silently. Previous findings were supported of delayed latencies and increased amplitude in depressed patients and decreased amplitudes and delayed latencies in schizophrenics. An exaggerated effect of diastole on the ERP in the right hemisphere was observed in depressed patients, however, no cardiovascular effect on the ERP was apparent in schizophrenic patients. Results suggested that heart/brain networks are tightly coupled in normal controls, perhaps "overdriven" in depressed patients, and uncoupled in schizophrenics.

Arousal

Blood flow response to auditory stimulations in normal, mentally retarded, and autistic children: a preliminary transcranial Doppler ultrasonographic study of the middle cerebral arteries.

Using the noninvasive transcranial ultrasonic Doppler method, flow dynamics of the middle cerebral arteries were investigated in relation to auditory stimulations in 12 children with autistic behavior compared with 12 normal controls and 10 mentally retarded children. In normal children, auditory stimulation evoked lateralized modifications: blood flow increased and resistance index decreased on the left side; such modifications were not recorded on the right side. This pattern should indicate vasodilatation mechanisms induced by changes in the metabolism of the brain areas supplied by the left middle cerebral arteries (MCA). Although less asymmetrical, this pattern was also found in the mentally retarded children. Autistic children significantly differed from these two groups. They displayed a symmetric pattern of responses with a blood flow decrease and resistance-index increase on both sides; this could suggest abnormal metabolic mechanisms induced by auditory stimulation in autistic children and could be related to the previous hypothesis of impairment in the development of cerebral lateralization in autism. These preliminary results show that transcranial Doppler ultrasonography may be a valuable and practicable tool for the noninvasive study of evoked blood flow responses in psychopathology.

Arousal