Stitt C L, Hoffman H S, Marsh R R, Schwartz G M
J Comp Physiol Psychol. 1976 Jul;90(7):601-19. doi: 10.1037/h0077222.
A series of seven experiments related amplitude and latency of the pigeon's startle response, elicited by an intense visual stimulus, to antecedent auditory and visual events in the sensory environment. The data indicated that (a) within broad limits the amplitude of the reflex is a positive function of the intensity of the sensory background prevailing at the time of startle elicitation, (b) a change in the sensory environment occurring 15-2,000 msec prior to the startle-eliciting stimulus inhibits the amplitude of the response, and (c) a change in the sensory environment less than 10 msec prior to the startle-eliciting stimulus reduces the latency of the response. These findings are consistent with previous research on acoustic elicited startle in the rat. The overall configuration of the results suggests that a pathway including the reticulospinal tract and the bulbopontine reticular nuclei could be the major mediator of startle. In these terms, latency-reduction effects would occur because of partial activation of this pathway, amplitude inhibition would occur because of cerebellar influence, and amplitude facilitation would reflect cerebral or striatal influences.
一系列七项实验研究了由强烈视觉刺激引发的鸽子惊吓反应的幅度和潜伏期与感觉环境中先前听觉和视觉事件的关系。数据表明：（a）在很大范围内，反射幅度是惊吓引发时普遍存在的感觉背景强度的正函数；（b）在惊吓引发刺激前15 - 2000毫秒发生的感觉环境变化会抑制反应幅度；（c）在惊吓引发刺激前不到10毫秒发生的感觉环境变化会缩短反应潜伏期。这些发现与先前关于大鼠听觉引发惊吓的研究一致。结果的整体格局表明，包括网状脊髓束和延髓脑桥网状核的通路可能是惊吓的主要介导途径。从这些方面来看，潜伏期缩短效应是由于该通路的部分激活而发生的，幅度抑制是由于小脑的影响而发生的，幅度促进则反映了大脑或纹状体的影响。
