Influence of a monetary incentive upon attentional modification of short‐lead prepulse inhibition and long‐lead prepulse facilitation of acoustic startle

Abstract

Short-lead prepulse inhibition and long-lead prepulse facilitation of startle are greater during attended than ignored prestimuli. The present work examined whether this attentional modification is influenced by monetary incentive. Participants (43 college students) were randomly assigned to receive a small performance-based monetary incentive or were instructed to try their best. The task was to judge the duration of tones of one of two pitches during a series of 48 tones. Prepulse inhibition of startle eyeblink EMG was assessed at 60, 120, and 240 ms, and prepulse facilitation was assessed at 4,500 ms following tone onset. Short-lead percent prepulse inhibition was greater during attended than ignored prestimuli only at 120 ms among paid participants. Long-lead prepulse facilitation was greater for attended than ignored tones, but this effect did not vary with incentive condition. This study demonstrates that attentional modification of short-lead prepulse inhibition is sensitive to a monetary incentive and provides a basis for further examination of motivational effects on early attentional processing.

Attention and prepulse inhibition: the effects of task-relevant, irrelevant, and no-task conditions

“…Finally, Hawk et al (2002), in a study on the effect of payment for task performance, obtained results consistent with the conclusion that attentional modulation is due to both increased protection of attended stimuli and decreased protection of ignored stimuli. They reported reduced PPI at the 120 ms lead interval compared to the 60 ms lead interval for ignored lead stimuli and greater PPI at the 120 ms lead interval compared to the 60 ms lead interval for attended lead stimuli.…”

“…At short lead intervals, PPI after a lead stimulus that is attended is typically greater than PPI after a lead stimulus that is not attended Filion et al, 1993Filion et al, , 1994Hawk et al, 2002;Hazlett et al, 1998;Jennings et al, 1996;Schell et al, 2000). This increase in PPI is called attentional modulation.…”

“…However, since some of the blocks were long (up to eight trials), it is possible that overall vigilance could have declined during the long blocks of no-task trials. The experiment was designed to investigate the effect of habituation of the lead stimulus on attentional modulation and the Hawk et al (2002) experiment was designed to investigate the effect of extrinsic incentive on attentional modulation. Because they were planned for these purposes, the important no-task condition was not needed and not included.…”

The effects of methylphenidate on prepulse inhibition during attended and ignored prestimuli among boys with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder

“…Behavioral treatments play a strong role in the management of ADHD , and the results of an initial study in young adults suggests that attentional modification of prepulse inhibition is sensitive to the effects of incentives. In that study, prepulse inhibition was enhanced during attended relative to ignored tone prestimuli among participants provided a monetary incentive for task performance, but not among participants who were simply asked to try to do their best (Hawk et al 2002b). Given the putative role of altered responsivity to reward and punishment in ADHD (Haenlein and Caul 1987;Iaboni et al 1997), the tone discrimination prepulse paradigm may provide a useful context for exploring both behavioral/motivational and pharmacological influences on attentional processing in ADHD.…”

Enhanced prepulse inhibition of startle using salient prepulses in rats

“…They speculated that although PPI is primarily an automatic, preattentive mechanism, it might be affected by top-down attentional processes (Filion et al, 1998). It is worth mentioning that attentional effects on PPI were repeatedly found for long (e.g., >120 ms), but not for shorter ISIs Hawk et al, 2002;Filion and Poje, 2003). A study by Bradley et al (1993) revealed in a crossmodal experimental design that at an ISI of 300 ms the ASR is significantly reduced by focussing the attention on a visual prepulse, supporting the theory of attentional processes influencing PPI.…”