Schicatano E J, Blumenthal T D
Department of Neurobiology, SUNY-Stony Brook, NY 11794-5230, USA.
Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 1998 Jan;59(1):145-50. doi: 10.1016/s0091-3057(97)00384-5.
The present experiment tested the effects of caffeine on acoustic startle habituation during different attention tasks in which subjects either (a) attended to the acoustic startle stimulus (auditory attention; n = 9) (b) attended to a visual search task during presentation of acoustic startle stimuli (visual attention; n = 10), or (c) were given no specific instructions during acoustic startle testing (no attention; n = 9). Startle eyeblink responses were measured after subjects received either caffeine (1 mg/kg) or placebo. Caffeine significantly delayed response habituation in the no attention group and in the auditory attention group, but had no effect on habituation in the visual attention group. These data show that startle habituation can occur with minimal attention being directed to the acoustic startle stimulus, and that visual attention cancels the effects of caffeine on startle habituation.
本实验测试了咖啡因在不同注意力任务中对听觉惊吓习惯化的影响，在这些任务中，受试者要么（a）关注听觉惊吓刺激（听觉注意力；n = 9），（b）在听觉惊吓刺激呈现期间关注视觉搜索任务（视觉注意力；n = 10），要么（c）在听觉惊吓测试期间没有给予特定指示（无注意力；n = 9）。在受试者接受咖啡因（1 mg/kg）或安慰剂后，测量惊吓眨眼反应。咖啡因显著延迟了无注意力组和听觉注意力组的反应习惯化，但对视觉注意力组的习惯化没有影响。这些数据表明，在对听觉惊吓刺激的注意力最小的情况下，惊吓习惯化也可能发生，并且视觉注意力会消除咖啡因对惊吓习惯化的影响。
