Ludewig Katja, Ludewig Stephan, Seitz Antonia, Obrist Martina, Geyer Mark A, Vollenweider Franz X
Psychiatric Services of Aargau Canton, Department of Research, PO Box 298, CH-5201, Brugg, Switzerland.
Biol Psychol. 2003 Jul;63(3):311-23. doi: 10.1016/s0301-0511(03)00074-7.
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 years) were investigated in an acoustic startle paradigm using a startle stimulus of 115 dB and a prepulse of 86 dB (16 dB over the white noise background) with five different lead intervals (30, 60, 120, 240, and 2000 ms). Seventeen males and 16 female participants were tested three times at monthly intervals. Aged participants showed significantly lower startle magnitude and significantly more habituation than younger participants, but there was no effect of age on PPI or prepulse facilitation. Moreover, there were no effects of gender on startle magnitude, PPI, prepulse facilitation, or habituation measures. Healthy males and females exhibited stable startle magnitudes and PPI across sessions. The results demonstrated that PPI and startle are reliable measures of sensory information processing in both genders and that startle magnitude and habituation are age-dependent measures.
听觉惊跳反射及其通过前脉冲抑制（PPI）和习惯化的调节在神经精神研究的不同领域的许多研究中都有应用。本研究的目的是检验年龄和性别对健康人类志愿者的PPI、惊跳幅度和习惯化的影响。在听觉惊跳范式中，对27名男性和28名女性参与者进行了研究，他们分属于四个不同年龄组（范围：20 - 60岁），使用115分贝的惊跳刺激和86分贝的前脉冲（比白噪声背景高16分贝），前脉冲有五个不同的提前间隔（30、60、120、240和2000毫秒）。17名男性和16名女性参与者每月接受三次测试。老年参与者的惊跳幅度明显低于年轻参与者，习惯化程度明显高于年轻参与者，但年龄对PPI或前脉冲易化没有影响。此外，性别对惊跳幅度、PPI、前脉冲易化或习惯化测量没有影响。健康的男性和女性在各次测试中表现出稳定的惊跳幅度和PPI。结果表明，PPI和惊跳是两性感觉信息处理的可靠指标，惊跳幅度和习惯化是与年龄相关的指标。
