Acoustic startle response

Crofton, K.M. and L.W. Reiter. 1988. The effects of Type I and II pyrethroids on motor activity and the acoustic startle response in the rat. Fundam. Appl. Toxicol. 10 624-634. 

Davis, M., and Sheard, M. H. (1975) Effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) on temporal recovery (pre-pulse inhibition) of the acoustic startle response in the rat. Pharmacol. Biochem. Behav., 3 861-868. 

Astrachan, D. 1., and Davis, M. (1981) Spinal modulation of the acoustic startle response The role of norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine. Brain Res., 206 223-228. 

Table 3 Effects on pyrethroids on acoustic startle response...

The effects of pyrethroids on acoustic startle response (ASR) were examined to detect the effects on sensorimotor function. Pyrethroids show various effects on ASR (Table 3). Crofton and Reiter reported that non-cyano pyrethroids showed no effect on the latency, while they increased the amplitude. a-Cyano pyrethroids showed increase or no change on the latency, while various effects on the amplitude were observed [30, 31]. Fenvalerate showed effects similar to non-cyano pyrethroids. In studies by Hijzen et al. [32, 33], the results of permethrin and deltamethrin on the amplitude were consistent with the findings by Crofton and Reiter, but cypermethrin induced contradictory effects. NAK 1901 showed similar effects to other non-cyano pyrethroids. The reason for the inconsistency of effects of pyrethroids on startle response remains unsolved. 

Auditory Stereotyped behavioral response to a sudden sound Acoustic startle response by video tracking Bang et al. 219 Zeddies and Fay 220 Whitfield221... 

Referred to as a conditioned fear paradigm, the fear potentiated startle response was first described by Brown et al. (1951). In the original test, an acoustic stimulus is presented in the presence of a conditioned stimulus that has previously been paired with an aversive, unconditioned stimulus. The amplitude of the acoustic startle response is thought to indicate the degree of conditioned anxiety, which can be reduced by anxiolytic drugs (Davis et al. 1993 Hijzen et al. 1995). 

Walther DJ, Peter JU, Bashammakh S, Hortnagl H, Voits M, Fink H, Bader M (2003) Synthesis of serotonin by a second tryptophan hydroxylase isoform. Science 299 76 Wang X, Su H, Copenhagen LD, Vaishnav S, Fieri F, Shope CD, Brownell WE, De Biasi M, Paylor R, Bradley A (2002) Urocortin-deficient mice display normal stress-induced anxiety behavior and autonomic control but an impaired acoustic startle response. Mol Cell Biol 22 6605-6610... 

Frankland PW, Josselyn SA, Bradwejn J, Vaccarino FJ, Yeomans JS (1997) Activation of amygdala cholecystokinin B receptors potentiates the acoustic startle response in the rat. J Neurosci 17 1838-1847... 

Dirks A, Pattij T, Bouwknecht JA, et al. 5-HT1B receptor knockout, but not 5-HT1A receptor knockout mice, show reduced startle reactivity and footshock-induced sensitization, as measured with the acoustic startle response. Behav Brain Res 2001 118 169-78. 

Bubser M, Koch M. 1994. Prepulse inhibition of the acoustic startle response of rats is reduced by 6-hydroxydopamine lesions of the medial prefrontal cortex. Psychopharmacology 113 487-492. 

Wilkinson LS, Killcross AS, Humby T, Hall FS, Geyer MA, Robbins TW (1994) Social isolation produces developmentally-specific deficits in pre-pulse inhibition of the acoustic startle response but does not disrupt latent inhibition. Neuropsychopharmacology 70 61-72. 

Additional doses of benzodiazepines in long-term users are commonly needed, but it is unknown whether these additional doses have any effect. The effects of an additional 20 mg dose of oxazepam has been assessed in a double-bhnd, balanced-order, crossover, randomized study in 16 long-term users of oxazepam and 18 benzodiazepine-naive controls (5). The effects of oxazepam 10 and 30 mg were assessed on (a) saccadic eye movements as a proxy for the sedative effect (b) the acoustic startle response as a proxy for the anxiolytic effects (c) memory (d) reaction time tasks (e) subjective measurements. There were dose-related effects on the peak velocity of saccadic eye movement and response probability and on the peak amplitude of the acoustic startle response. Comparison with the controls suggested that the sedative effects might be confounded with the suppression of sedative withdrawal symptoms, whereas the patients were as sensitive as the controls to the effects of an additional dose of oxazepam on the acoustic startle response. 

The animals are tested for acoustic startle response (ASR) and pre-pulse inhibition (PPI) in the SMI00 Startle Monitor... 

There are several other reports that have demonstrated the disruptive effects of the 0.4 X LD50 chronic sarin, soman, or VX exposure in food-restricted animals, which has also been reported by others. Sipos et al. (2001 and in Thompson et al., 2004, 2005) evaluated the effects of repeated low-dose exposure of guinea pigs to sarin, soman, or VX using this same procedure and evaluate acoustic startle response and active avoidance (two-way air puff) performance. Chronic low-level exposure to sarin, soman, or VX enhanced acoustic startle. This enhancement started after several... 

The majority of individuals exposed to trauma are resilient and do not develop PTSD. As in humans, lower mammals also have individual differences and heterogeneity of stress responses. Recent animal models of PTSD attempt to take into account this heterogeneity. Cohen et al., 2006 review two measures—performance on the elevated plus maze and acoustic startle response, used to mimic symptoms of PTSD. In their model, they differentiate animals that display stress-induced extreme behavioral responses (EBR) on both of these tests from those that display minimal behavioral responses (MBR). Different types of stress paradigms caused different proportions of EBR and MBR, similar to the suggestion in clinical literature that more severe stress increases incidence of PTSD. In Cohen s study, although stress led to an EBR immediately after the stressor in 100% of the animals, only 25% of the animals continued to show EBR 30 days following stress. 

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