Cardiac Orienting and Startle Blink Modification in Novel and Signal Situations

Bohlin, Gunilla; Graham, Frances K.; Silverstein, Louis D.; Hackley, Steven A.

doi:10.1111/j.1469-8986.1981.tb01832.x

Cited by 59 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…This is akin to an attentional direction effect, in that response latency was facilitated by the direction of attention to, relative to away from, the eliciting stimulus. Facilitation of startle by directed attention has also been shown in previous research (Bohlin & Graham, 1977;Bohlin, Graham, Silverstein, & Hackley, 1981;.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 79%

Prepulse effects on magnitude estimation of startle-eliciting stimuli and startle responses

Blumenthal

Schicatano

Chapman

et al. 1996

Perception & Psychophysics

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The present studies investigated the relationship between prepulse effects on the modification of the brainstem startle reflex and magnitude estimates of startle-eliciting stimuli. In Experiment 1,startle eyeblink responses were elicited in 24 students, half of whom were instructed to estimate the loudness of the startle stimulus (actual intensities of 80,90, and 100dB) and half of whom were instructed to estimate the magnitude of their eyeblink. When weak acoustic prepulses preceded the startle-eliciting stimulus, eyeblink amplitude was inhibited, and estimates of response magnitude decreased, but estimates of startle stimulus magnitude decreased only when 100-dB startle stimuli were presented. In Experiment 2, the same startle stimuli were preceded on some trials by a vibrotactile prepulse to the hand. In conditions in which startle amplitude was inhibited, startle stimulus magnitude estimates were not affected. This suggests that the effect of acoustic prepulses on 100-dB startle stimuli in Experiment 1 may have been due to loudness assimilation, an effect independent of the prepulse inhibition of startle responding.The purpose of the present studies was to evaluate the effects of a prepulse on both the startle blink reflex and the estimation of the magnitude of either the startle-eliciting stimulus or the blink response itself. The startle response is a brainstem reflex to a sudden stimulus, such as a sudden sound, a flash of light, a tap to the forehead, a puff of air to the side of the face, or an electrical pulse to the forehead (Anthony, 1985). This response is very sensitive to small variations in the eliciting stimulus, and startle provides an excellent measure of sensory processing and motor excitation (Britt & Blumenthal, 1993;Graham, 1975). The startle response can be inhibited by the presentation of a low-intensity stimulus, called a prepulse, between 30 and 500 msec before startle stimulus onset (Graham, 1975). This startle response inhibition can be used to assess the early stages of prepulse processing. Graham (1979) has stated that inhibition of the startle response may be due to the activation of a mechanism that protects the preattentive processing of the prepulse and partially prevents this processing from being interrupted by the startle stimulus. Evidence for this protection has recently been reported (Norris & Blumenthal, 1995). Yamada (1983) showed that both the amplitude of the eyeblink (electromyography [EMG] of orbicularis oculi) and estimations of the magnitude of the blink-eliciting sounds increased as stimulus intensity increased from 80The authors would like to thank E. Krauter for his assistance in the planning of these studies. Portions of this research were presented at the Psychonomic Society meeting, St. Louis, Missouri, November 1994. Correspondence should be addressed to T. D. Blumenthal, Department of Psychology, Wake Forest University, Box 7778, Reynolda Station, Winston-Salem, NC 27109 (e-mail: blumen@wfu.edu).73 to 120 dB. Blumenthal (1993) presented startle-eliciting s...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 79%

Prepulse effects on magnitude estimation of startle-eliciting stimuli and startle responses

Blumenthal

Schicatano

Chapman

et al. 1996

Perception & Psychophysics

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“…Examples include, in pigeons, differences in the prestimulus intensity required to elicit the two types of modulation (Stitt, Hoffman, Marsh, & Schwartz, 1976); in rats, magnitude-inhibited but latency-facilitated reflex startle when a reflex stimulus is preceded by two prestimuli at different SOAs, one (64 msec) PPI-eliciting and one (4 msec) latency-facilitating ; similarly, in human adults, a magnitude-reduced reflex whose latency is speeded when a reflex stimulus is preceded by a single 30-to 60-msec prestimulus (Graham, 1980;Graham & Murray, 1977). These and other observations have suggested that latency modulation is mediated by a more direct, i.e., shorter or faster path, than magnitude modulation (Bohlin, Graham, Silverstein, & Hackley, 1981;Graham & Murray, 1977;Hoffman & Ison, 1980).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Prestimulation effects on blink and cardiac reflexes of 15‐month human infants

Balaban¹,

Anthony²,

Graham

1989

Developmental Psychobiology

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Reduction of reflex startle by brief changes in prestimulation is a robust phenomenon in adults of several species. Although the phenomenon does not require structures above midbrain, it has a long and uneven developmental course. This study of human infants assessed prestimulus effects at 15 months, within a period which has failed, in past work, to show the usual inhibitory modulation. Magnitude and onset latency of the startle blink and concurrent changes in heart rate were measured under four conditions: 2 single-stimulus conditions, 25-msec, 84-dB, 1000-Hz tone or 50-msec, 109-dB white noise; 2 paired-stimulus conditions, noise bursts preceded by tone at lead times of 125 msec or 225 msec. Compared to noise-alone, paired conditions elicited insignificant increases in blink size, significant shortening of blink onset latency, and significant attenuation of heart rate responses. The findings add to growing evidence of a dissociation between modulating effects on blink magnitude and latency and of a dissociation between modulating effects on somatic and autonomic reflexes.

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“…When the startleeliciting stimulus occurs in the sensory modality that is being attended~e.g., a loud sound while one is listening to music!, startle response magnitude is larger than when attention is focused on a modality other than the one in which the startle is presented~e.g., a loud sound while one is viewing a picture; Bohlin, Graham, Silverstein, & Hackley, 1981!. Although self-focused attention involves drawing attention toward the self and away from the environment, it is unclear whether this phenomenon is functionally equivalent to drawing attention toward one sensory modality and away from another one.…”

Section: The Startle Reflex As a Probe Into Attention And Emotionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Effect of self‐focused attention on the startle reflex, heart rate, and memory performance among socially anxious and nonanxious individuals

Panayiotou

Vrana

1998

Psychophysiology

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The present study examined the effect of self-focused attention on the startle reflex and heart rate and assessed the assumption that socially anxious individuals become self-focused in evaluative situations. Twenty-five high and 30 low socially anxious men performed a digit recall task under evaluative or nonevaluative instructions. Half of the trials were performed under self-focused conditions and half under non-self-focused conditions. Self-focus led to larger startle responses among socially anxious individuals and had no effect on heart rate. Self-focus combined with evaluation led to poorer recall performance among all subjects. Results provide evidence against a directional change in attention during self-focused attention and favor the view that self-focus increases access to self-relevant thought content and decreases available processing resources.

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Cardiac Orienting and Startle Blink Modification in Novel and Signal Situations

Cited by 59 publications

References 18 publications

Prepulse effects on magnitude estimation of startle-eliciting stimuli and startle responses

Prepulse effects on magnitude estimation of startle-eliciting stimuli and startle responses

Prestimulation effects on blink and cardiac reflexes of 15‐month human infants

Effect of self‐focused attention on the startle reflex, heart rate, and memory performance among socially anxious and nonanxious individuals

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