Books about Startle from Amazon.com

The startle reflex provides a revealing model for examining the ways in which evolved neurophysiology shapes personal experience and patterns of recurrent social interaction. In the most diverse cultural contexts, in societies widely separated by time and space, the inescapable physiology of the reflex both shapes the experience of startle and biases the social usages to which the reflex is put. This book describes ways in which the startle reflex is experienced, culturally elaborated, and socially used in a wide variety of times and places. It offers explanations both for the patterned commonalities found across cultural settings and for the differences engendered by diverse social environments. Boo! will intrigue readers in fields such as psychological anthropology, medical anthropology, general cultural anthropology, social psychology, cross-cultural psychiatry, evolutionary psychology, and human ethology..
Price: $8.71 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This digital document is a journal article from Biological Psychology, published by Elsevier in . The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
Prepulse inhibition (PPI) and habituation of the acoustic startle response (ASR) are widely used biological markers in the study of psychiatric disorders and have been shown to be homologous across species. Previous studies in humans suggested that PPI is a stable and reliable measure between test sessions, but that PPI decreases within sessions. The purpose of this study was to explore the short- and long-term decrease in PPI as a potential confound in the measurement and interpretation of PPI. We investigated the progression of PPI and habituation of ASR in three test sessions spaced 4 weeks apart in a group of 20 healthy participants. Analysis revealed a significant decrease in the percent PPI within and between the test sessions. Nevertheless, PPI was reliable across three test sessions, indicating that the significant attenuation of PPI over time was a consistent phenomenon. These results suggest that PPI exhibits short- and long-term attenuation. .
Price: $5.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This digital document is an article from Journal of Studies on Alcohol, published by Alcohol Research Documentation, Inc. on January 1, 2000. The length of the article is 6681 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the author: Objective: This study examined the hypothesis that a decreased reaction to alcohol and a deficit in prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the startle reflex are characteristics of male offspring of alcoholics without comorbid anxiety disorder. Method: Male offspring (N = 51) with a parental history of (1) alcoholism only, (2) anxiety disorder only, (3) alcoholism and anxiety disorder, and (4) no psychiatric disorder participated in an experiment examining the effects of alcohol on the acoustic startle reflex and on PPI. The experiment was carried out in two sessions in which subjects received an alcoholic beverage and placebo beverage on alternate days. Results: The magnitude of startle was reduced by alcohol in each group. However, the degree of reduction was less in the offspring of alcoholics only compared to the other groups. In addition, PPI was reduced in the offspring of alcoholics only compared to the offspring of parents with no psychiatric disorder. Conclusions: A reduced reactivity to the effect of alcohol and a deficit in PPI might constitute vulnerability markers for alcoholism, but only in offspring of alcoholics without comorbid anxiety disorder. (J. Stud. Alcohol 61: 46-54, 2000)

Citation Details
Title: Effects of Alcohol on Baseline Startle and Prepulse Inhibition in Young Men at Risk for Alcoholism and/or Anxiety Disorders(*).
Author: Christian Grillon
Publication:Journal of Studies on Alcohol (Refereed)
Date: January 1, 2000
Publisher: Alcohol Research Documentation, Inc.
Volume: 61 Issue: 1 Page: 46

Distributed by Thomson Gale.
Price: $5.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]