Intracerebroventricular administration of corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) elicits a constellation of behavioral, autonomic, and endocrinological changes typically observed in stress. One of the behavioral changes after intracerebroventricular CRH is a profound increase of startle amplitude (CRH-enhanced startle). The present study examined the role of the septum in CRH-enhanced startle. T...

Prepulse inhibition (PPI) is an acoustic startle paradigm that has been used as an operational measure of sensorimotor gating. Many patients with schizophrenia have impaired PPI, and several lines of evidence suggest that PPI may represent a heritable endophenotype in this disease. We examined startle magnitude and latencies in 40 schizophrenia patients, 58 first-degree relatives of these patie...

The corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) receptors (CRF1 and CRF2) are crucial mediators of physiological and behavioral responses to stress. In animals, CRF1 appears to primarily mediate CRF-induced anxiety-like responses, but the role of CRF2 during stress is still unclear. Here we report the effects of CRF1 and CRF2 on the magnitude and plasticity of defensive startle responses in mice. Star...

Data suggests that emotion reactivity as measured by the affect-modulated startle paradigm in those with schizophrenia (SZ) may be similar to healthy controls (HC). However, normative classification of the stimuli may not accurately reflect emotional experience, especially for those with SZ. To examine this possibility, the present study measured the affect-modulated startle response with image...

Both emotion and attention are known to influence the startle response. Stress influences emotion and attention, but the impact of stress on the human startle response remains unclear. We used an established physiological stressor, the Cold Pressor Test (CPT), to induce stress in a non-clinical human sample (24 student participants) in a within-subjects design. Autonomic (heart rate and skin co...

BACKGROUND Anxiety symptoms might be a vulnerability factor for the development of major depressive disorder (MDD). Because elevated startle magnitude in threatening contexts is a marker for anxiety disorder, the present study investigated the hypothesis that enhanced startle reactivity would also be found in children and grandchildren of individuals with MDD. METHODS The magnitude of startle...

Previously, we demonstrated that transection of the fimbria/fornix blocked the excitatory effect of corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) on startle (CRH-enhanced startle), suggesting that the hippocampus and its efferent target areas that communicate via the fimbria may be critically involved in CRH-enhanced startle. The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) receives direct projections fr...

Startle habituation is a type of implicit and automatic emotion regulation. Diminished startle habituation is linked to several psychiatric or neurological disorders. Most previous studies quantified startle habituation by assessing skin conductance response (SCR; reflecting sympathetic-mediated sweating), eye-blink reflex, or motor response. The habituation of parasympathetic-mediated heart ra...

Some activities performed by healthcare workers may still involve total or partial exposure to ionising radiation exceeding the limit values. In addition to the appearance of crystalline lens opacities which may lead to rays-cataract, recent studies have indicated possible induction of ocular hypertonia in occupationally exposed subjects. The aim of this study was to establish the actual preval...

We report a newborn with hyperekplexia and uncontrolled tonic spasms which did not respond to intravenous phenobarbitone and phenytoin, and midazolam infusion. Serum biochemistry, electrocardiography, electroencephalography, lumbar puncture and neuroimaging were normal. Continuous cardiac monitoring revealed that tonic spasm episodes were accompanied by sinus node paucity and severe bradycardia...