Following stroke, reaching movements are slow, segmented, and variable. It is unclear if these deficits result from a poorly constructed movement plan or an inability to voluntarily execute an appropriate plan. The acoustic startle reflex provides a means to initiate a motor plan involuntarily. In the presence of a movement plan, startling acoustic stimulus triggers non-voluntary early executio...

In the current review article it is suggested that fear is a central emotional state that can be activated by external threat cues. The subcortical defensive system cannot only be activated by intrinsically aversive events but shows also strong plasticity enabling previously innocuous stimuli to get access to the fear system after they were paired with painful outcomes. On the other hand, avers...

The acoustic startle reflex and its modulation by prepulse inhibition (PPI) and habituation are used in many studies in different fields of neuropsychiatric research. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of age and gender on PPI, startle magnitude, and habituation in healthy human volunteers. Twenty-seven male and 28 female participants of four different age groups (range: 20-60 yea...

The fixation reflex is an important representative of orienting (targeting) reflexes. In the cat with the brainstem transected at the pretrigeminal level the fixation reflex is easy to investigate for the following reasons: (a) all sensory inputs to the isolated cerebrum of the pretrigeminal cat are eliminated, except for visual afferents, (b) the isolated cerebrum is continuously awake, (c) th...

The acoustic startle reflex (ASR) is potentiated during negative emotion, but attenuated during positive emotional experience. The modulation of the ASR by fear depends critically on the amygdala. The authors investigated ASR modulation to fearful, disgusting, pleasant, and neutral stimuli in 12 patients with unilateral damage to the anteromedial temporal lobe including the amygdala (6 left, 6 ...

BACKGROUND There is still controversy regarding the influence of aging on medial olivocochlear (MOC) system function. The main objective of this study is to measure age-related changes of MOC system function in people with normal hearing thresholds. METHOD Bilateral assessment of the MOC effect for click-evoked otoacoustic emissions (CEOAEs; at 70±3 dB peak sound pressure level [pSPL], click ...

PURPOSE To establish the standard criteria for the Gaps-in-Noise (GIN) test in 9-year-old normal-hearing children; to obtain the mean gap detection thresholds; and to verify the influence of the variables gender and ear on the gap detection thresholds. METHODS Forty normal-hearing individuals, 20 male and 20 female, with ages ranging from 9 years to 9 years and 11 months, were evaluated. The ...

OBJECTIVE To explore the deficits of acoustic startle reflex (ASR) that might exist in Chinese patients with schizophrenia and the effects of antipsychotics on ASR. METHODS Participants included 25 male patients with chronic schizophrenia treated with typical antipsychotics (typical group), 25 who were treated with atypical antipsychotic clozapine (clozapine group) and 25 healthy male subject...

Development of electrophysiological means to assess the medial olivocochlear (MOC) system in humans is important to further our understanding of the function of that system and for the refinement and validation of psychoacoustical and otoacoustic emission methods which are thought to probe the MOC. Based on measurements in anesthetized animals it has been hypothesized that the MOC-reflex (MOCR)...