Startle Response and Pre-Pulse Inhibition

The apparatus (Med Associates Inc., St Albans, VT, USA), consisting of an acoustic stimulator (ANL-925, Med Associates Inc., St Albans, VT, USA) and a platform with a transducer amplifier (PHM-250-60, Med Associates Inc., St Albans, VT, USA), was positioned in a foam-lined isolation chamber (ENV-018S, Med Associates Inc., St Albans, VT, USA), defined as startle chamber. Experimental data were acquired automatically through dedicated software (SOF-815, Med Associates Inc., St Albans, VT, USA). The procedure adopted in this study, consisting of a habituation phase followed by a test phase on the following day, has been detailed in [32 (link)]. Pre-pulse inhibition was computed as the percentage of reduction of startle to the pre-pulse + pulse trials compared to the pulse alone trial 1 − (startle_{pre-pulse+pulse}/startle_{pulse alone}).