Baseline and Modulated Acoustic Startle Responses in Adolescent Girls With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Lipschitz, Deborah S.; Mayes, Linda M.; Rasmusson, Ann M.; Anyan, Walter R.; Billingslea, Eileen; Gueorguieva, Ralitza; Southwick, Steven M.

doi:10.1097/01.chi.0000166379.60769.b6

Cited by 42 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…This is in line with the adult literature showing elevated acoustic startle reflexes in patients with anxiety disorders, including PTSD. 10,45 Our findings disagree with one study that failed to find enhanced startle reflexes in adolescent girls with PTSD symptoms, 24 and another study that reported diminished startle reflexes in a small sample of children with PTSD related to a sniper attack. 25 The acoustic startle reflex is modulated entirely by the CNS via a relatively simple pathway that receives direct input from the amygdala, a structure that is heavily implicated in fear learning.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 88%

“…23 In contrast to studies of adults, one study found no evidence of enhanced acoustic startle in adolescent girls with full or partial PTSD, relative to non-traumatized controls. 24 Another study reported diminished acoustic startle reflexes in a small sample of children who developed PTSD after witnessing a sniper attack compared to non-exposed children. 25 Clearly, efforts towards reconciling these variable findings and establishing a stronger knowledge base of physiological reactivity in youth populations are needed.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Electrophysiological responses to threat in youth with and without Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Grasso

Simons

2012

Biological Psychology

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The current study was designed to examine event-related brain potentials and autonomic responses to pictures indicating threat, relative to non-threat, and acoustic startle reflexes in traumatized youth diagnosed with PTSD, relative to non-exposed children, before and after receiving psychotherapy. Children in the control group were individually yoked and demographically matched to the PTSD group. Both groups displayed enhanced late positive potentials and more prolonged heart rate deceleration to pictures indicating threat, relative to non-threat, and larger skin conductance responses to pictures indicating threat, relative to non-threat, at time one. At time two, controls appeared to habituate, as reflected by an overall attenuated skin conductance response, whereas the PTSD group showed little change. Across time points the PTSD group exhibited greater acoustic startle reflexes than the control group. Psychotherapy and symptom reduction was not associated with electrophysiology. Drawing from the adult literature, this study was an attempt to address the scarcity of research examining electrophysiological irregularities in childhood PTSD. The overall results suggest that children and adolescents allocate more attention to threat-related stimuli regardless of PTSD status, and exaggerated startle and a possible failure to habituate skin conductance responses to threat-related stimuli in youth with versus without PTSD.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 88%

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confidence: 99%

Electrophysiological responses to threat in youth with and without Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Grasso

Simons

2012

Biological Psychology

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“…These results are therefore of crucial relevance for the design of mouse models of sensorimotor gating disorders, highlighting the importance of age and strain background. Finally, these results show a need to investigate startle plasticity during adolescence in humans, an issue which has received only little attention (Lipschitz et al 2005). It has been shown that PPI reaches mature levels around 8 years of age in both men (Ornitz et al 1986) and women (Ornitz et al 1991) and declines after middle age (Ellwanger et al 2003), while habituation does not seem to be affected by age (Ellwanger et al 2003).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Strain-Dependent Changes in Acoustic Startle Response and its Plasticity Across Adolescence in Mice

Pietropaolo

Crusio

2009

Behav Genet

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Acoustic startle response and its plasticity, e.g., habituation and prepulse inhibition (PPI), have been extensively investigated, being altered in several neuropsychiatric disorders. Yet, little is known about the expression of startle-related behaviors during adolescence, a critical phase in the development of a variety of major neuropsychiatric pathologies. The present study investigated for the first time startle behaviors across adolescence in male mice of the inbred strains C57BL/6J and DBA/2J. Pre-pubertal (4 weeks of age) mice displayed reduced startle reactivity and altered PPI compared to adult animals (8 weeks of age), but these effects were observed only in the C57BL/6J strain. Strain differences were also clearly detected for startle response, habituation, and PPI. All effects were modulated by the intensity of the pulse stimulus and were not confounded by differences in anxiety levels. Our data demonstrate that genetic factors and the early adolescent phase are critically important considerations in the design of mouse models of neuropsychiatric disturbances.

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“…The evidence for larger magnitude startle responses in those with PTSD is mixed, with findings of larger (Butler et al 1990; Grillon et al 1998a; Holstein et al 2010), smaller (Ornitz and Pynoos 1989), or equivalent (Grillon et al 1996; Jovanovic et al 2009; Lipschitz et al 2005) startle responses in people with PTSD compared to control groups and a significant but small meta-analytic effect size (ES=.13) (Pole 2007). The evidence for diminished PPI in people with PTSD is also mixed.…”

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confidence: 99%

Effects of smoking on the acoustic startle response and prepulse inhibition in smokers with and without posttraumatic stress disorder

et al. 2013

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Rationale Cigarette smokers smoke in part because nicotine helps regulate attention. Prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the startle reflex is a measure of early attentional gating that is reduced in abstinent smokers and in groups with attention regulation difficulties. Attention difficulties are found in people with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Objectives The aim of this study is to assess whether smoking and abstinence differentially affect the startle response and PPI in smokers with and without PTSD. Methods Startle response and PPI (prepulses at 60, 120, or 240 ms) were measured in smokers with (N=39) and without (N=61) PTSD, while smoking and again while abstinent. Results Participants with PTSD produced both larger magnitude and faster latency startle responses than controls. Across groups, PPI was greater when smoking than when abstinent. The PTSD and control group exhibited different patterns of PPI across prepulse intervals when smoking and when abstinent. Older age was associated with reduced PPI, but only when abstinent from smoking. Conclusions The effects of PTSD on startle magnitude and of smoking on PPI replicate earlier studies. The different pattern of PPI exhibited in PTSD and control groups across prepulse intervals, while smoking and abstinent suggests that previous research on smoking and PPI has been limited by not including longer prepulse intervals, and that nicotine may affect the time course as well as increasing the level of PPI. The reduced PPI among older participants during abstinence suggests that nicotine may play a role in maintaining attention in older smokers, which may motivate continued smoking in older individuals.

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Baseline and Modulated Acoustic Startle Responses in Adolescent Girls With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Cited by 42 publications

References 28 publications

Electrophysiological responses to threat in youth with and without Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Electrophysiological responses to threat in youth with and without Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Strain-Dependent Changes in Acoustic Startle Response and its Plasticity Across Adolescence in Mice

Effects of smoking on the acoustic startle response and prepulse inhibition in smokers with and without posttraumatic stress disorder

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