A brain stem region essential for the classically conditioned but not unconditioned nictitating membrane response

Radio-frequency lesions of the right dorsolateral pons severely impaired both acquisition and retention of the ipsilateral conditioned nictitating membrane response to both visual and auditory conditioned stimuli. Unconditioned responses were unaffected, and conditioning of the contralateral (left) eye was not impaired. These data suggest a critical role of the dorsolateral pons in the generation of conditioned responding in this preparation.