Linn G S, Javitt D C
The Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY 10962, USA.
Neuroreport. 2001 Jan 22;12(1):117-20. doi: 10.1097/00001756-200101220-00031.
Prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the acoustic startle reflex is a measure of sensorimotor gating which occurs in both rodents and humans. PPI is deficient in severe neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia. We investigated PPI in 10 adult monkeys (Cebus apella). Stimuli were 115 dB white noise startle pulses, either alone or preceded by 120 ms with a prepulse of either 8 or 16 dB above the 70 dB background noise. Experiments included a pretreatment baseline session and a session following treatment with either phencyclidine (PCP, 0.12 mg/kg, i.m.) or saline. Comparison of peak amplitudes indicated a significant intensity-dependent decrease in startle response that was similar to that observed in humans under similar experimental conditions. PCP treatment significantly disrupted PPI, but did not reduce responses to startle pulses alone. These results provide the first demonstration of PPI in monkeys. The ability of PCP to induce schizophrenia-like deficits in PPI suggests that PPI in nonhuman primates may provide an important animal model for the development of novel anti-schizophrenia medications.
听觉惊跳反射的前脉冲抑制（PPI）是一种感觉运动门控指标，在啮齿动物和人类中均会出现。在精神分裂症等严重神经精神疾病中，PPI存在缺陷。我们对10只成年猴子（僧帽猴）进行了PPI研究。刺激为115分贝的白噪声惊跳脉冲，单独呈现或在其前120毫秒给予一个比70分贝背景噪声高8分贝或16分贝的前脉冲。实验包括一个预处理基线期和一个用苯环己哌啶（PCP，0.12毫克/千克，肌肉注射）或生理盐水处理后的时期。峰值幅度比较表明，惊跳反应存在显著的强度依赖性降低，这与在类似实验条件下人类中观察到的情况相似。PCP处理显著破坏了PPI，但并未降低对单独惊跳脉冲的反应。这些结果首次证明了猴子中存在PPI。PCP诱导PPI出现类似精神分裂症缺陷的能力表明，非人类灵长类动物中的PPI可能为新型抗精神分裂症药物的研发提供重要的动物模型。
