Abstract
Blink startle modulation by conditioning with aversive pictures as unconditioned stimuli. The aim of this work is to demonstrate the possibility of producing classical conditioning, using pictures of the "International Affective Picture System" (IAPS) as unconditioned stimuli (US). For this, a group of subjects (experimental group) received 20 pairing trials of a circular shape, as conditioned stimulus (CS), and an IAPS picture with very unpleasant affective valence and high "arousal". A control group received the same number of presentations of both stimuli in an uncorrelated way. Measurement of the conditioning was achieved indirectly, by means of the modulation amplitude of the blink startle elicited in the presence of the CS. The results showed that the blink startle amplitude was much higher in the experimental group. This suggests a transfer of the affective properties and/or "arousal" from the US to the CS, due to a conditioning process.
