Lipp O V, Krinitzky S P
Department of Psychology, University of Queensland, Australia,
Biol Psychol. 1998 Jan;47(1):65-76. doi: 10.1016/s0301-0511(97)00019-7.
The magnitude of a startle reflex is inhibited if the reflex-eliciting stimuli is preceded by a prepulse stimulus at a short lead interval. Previous research in humans has shown that the extent of prepulse inhibition decreases over repeated presentations of reflex stimuli and prepulse-reflex stimulus pairings. The present study (N = 70) investigated the effect of repeated presentations of prepulse stimuli, reflex stimuli, or prepulse-reflex stimulus pairings on prepulse inhibition. Five groups of subjects were presented during habituation training with either (a) reflex stimuli, (b) prepulse-reflex stimulus pairings, (c) a random sequence of prepulse and reflex stimuli, (d) prepulse stimuli, or (e) experimentally irrelevant light stimuli. Prepulse inhibition was reduced if startle stimuli were presented during habituation ((a), (b), (c)), but not after repeated presentation of the prepulse or the light stimulus ((d), (e)). The reduction in prepulse inhibition was abolished after dishabituation of the startle reflex. The present results indicate that habituation of the startle reflex can result in a reduction of prepulse inhibition.
如果在引发反射的刺激之前短时间间隔内出现预脉冲刺激，惊跳反射的幅度会受到抑制。先前对人类的研究表明，随着反射刺激和预脉冲 - 反射刺激配对的重复呈现，预脉冲抑制的程度会降低。本研究（N = 70）调查了预脉冲刺激、反射刺激或预脉冲 - 反射刺激配对的重复呈现对预脉冲抑制的影响。五组受试者在习惯化训练期间分别接受以下刺激：（a）反射刺激，（b）预脉冲 - 反射刺激配对，（c）预脉冲和反射刺激的随机序列，（d）预脉冲刺激，或（e）实验无关的光刺激。如果在习惯化期间呈现惊跳刺激（（a）、（b）、（c）），预脉冲抑制会降低，但在预脉冲或光刺激重复呈现后（（d）、（e））则不会。在惊跳反射去习惯化后，预脉冲抑制的降低被消除。目前的结果表明，惊跳反射的习惯化会导致预脉冲抑制的降低。
