AIMS We have found consistent and significant sex differences in recovery from the increased seizure susceptibility observed during ethanol withdrawal (EW) in our rat model system. The main objective of the present study was to determine if sex differences in EW generalized to an additional behavioral measure startle reactivity. METHODS Acoustic startle or seizure threshold responses were mea...

Salt-sensitive normotensive men exhibit an enhanced pressor response to mental stress. Although an enhanced pressor response is associated with higher affective startle modulation in men, an association between salt sensitivity of blood pressure and affective startle modulation has not been studied so far. We studied reactivity to mental stress and startle modulation in 14 salt-sensitive health...

A 20-year-old male had full manifestation of Coffin-Lowry syndrome and 6 year history of progressively severe drop episodes. His drop episodes were precipitated by unexpected sudden auditory stimuli, and were not associated with electroencephalographical changes. The positron emission tomography disclosed metabolic reduction over bilateral temporal-parietal cortex which could contribute to his ...

A localized, conditioned startle reaction (LCSR) to a click (as conditional stimulus) could be established and recorded electromyographically in rabbits if complex unconditional stimulus was employed. The complex consisted of localized, electrical stimulation applied concurrently to sensorimotor cortex and hypothalamus. The latency of this LCSR was only 12-14 ms. Postsynaptic responses were rec...

The holoplanktonic pteropod mollusk Clione limacina has a unique startle system that provides a very fast, ballistic movement of the animal during escape or prey capture behaviors. The startle system consists of two groups of large pedal motoneurons that control ventral or dorsal flexions of the wings. Although startle motoneurons innervate the same musculature used during normal swimming, they...

Startling acoustic stimuli (SAS) can accelerate reaction times ("StartReact" effect), but the underlying mechanism remains unclear. Both direct release of a subcortically stored motor program and a subcortically mediated trigger for a cortically stored motor program have been hypothesized. To distinguish between these hypotheses, we examined the StartReact effect in humans with pure hereditary ...

The current study provides a comprehensive evaluation of critical psychometric properties of commonly used psychophysiology laboratory tasks/measures within the NIMH RDoC. Participants (N = 128) completed the no-shock, predictable shock, unpredictable shock (NPU) task, affective picture viewing task, and resting state task at two study visits separated by 1 week. We examined potentiation/modula...

This study determined whether the brainstem motor inhibition system that mediates muscle atonia during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is involved in the elicitation and prepulse inhibition of the acoustic startle reflex. Electrolytic or neurotoxic (glutamate) lesions were made in the dorsolateral pontine tegmentum or the medial medulla, respectively, to produce the syndrome of REM sleep without...

The present study investigated the involvement of the human cerebellum in the habituation of the acoustic startle response using PET. The startle response was elicited in seven young, healthy subjects by a tone presented via headphones. Startle responses were recorded from the right sternocleidomastoid muscle. Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was assessed in nine scans and one startle stimul...

While several investigators have examined differences in affective startle modulation between individuals with and without Major Depressive Disorder, fewer researchers have evaluated the time course of this response, particularly in dysphoric individuals. The purpose of this study was to evaluate emotion modulation of the startle reflex during and after the presentation of affective pictures in...