Standardisation of prepulse inhibition of the startle reflex for pharmacological and interspecies comparisons

当人和其他动物在这里突然听到响亮的声音时，他们都吓了一跳。惊吓程度在一定程度上取决于声音有多大。声音的响度和惊吓的大小之间的关系就像一个滑雪道。每个人都有不同于其他人的滑雪道；滑雪道(门槛)的起点出现在不同的响度上，坡度不同，出现高原的滑雪道的高度也不同。在滑雪道上也存在遗传差异。惊吓反射的大小也可以通过在惊吓声音之前用一个安静的刺激来减小，在惊吓刺激之前几十毫秒。这被称为惊吓反射的脉冲前抑制，简称PPI。人们对PPI很感兴趣，因为患有某些精神疾病(如精神分裂症或创伤后应激障碍)和某些神经疾病(如亨廷顿舞蹈症)的人不同。它还受到药物的影响，包括兴奋剂、应激激素和大麻。在几乎所有关于PPI的数百个实验中，前脉冲对令人震惊的刺激的反应的影响只以一个令人震惊的刺激响度来衡量。对于不同的人或其他动物，这种响度可能是在滑雪道上非常不同的地方：对一个人来说，它可能是在陡峭的斜坡上，对另一个人来说，它可能是深入高原，甚至对其他人来说，它可能是在滑雪道底部低于门槛的地方。根据响度所代表的滑雪坡道的不同，PPI的效果会有很大不同。这种差异解释了文献中缺乏药物和遗传学对PPI的一致影响。计划进行的实验将调查类似于治疗精神分裂症、应激激素和大麻的药物对整个滑雪道上预脉冲的影响。这一程序将提供迄今未见的结果的一致性。

People and other animals startle when they here a sudden loud sound. How much one startles depends in part on how loud the sound is. The relationship between the loudness of the sound and the size of the startle resembles a ski slope. Each individual has a ski slope that differs from others; the beginning of the ski slope (threshold) occurs at a different loudness, the slope is a different steepness, and the height of the ski slope where the plateau occurs is different. There are genetic differences in ski slopes as well. The size of the startle reflex can also be reduced by preceding the startling sound with a quiet stimulus a few tens of milliseconds before the startling stimulus. This is known as prepulse inhibition of the startle reflex or PPI for short. There is much interest in PPI, because it differs in people with certain mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia or post-traumatic stress disorder, and certain neurological illnesses, such as Huntington's chorea. It is also affected by drugs, including stimulants, stress hormones, and cannabis. In almost all the hundreds of experiments on PPI the effect of the prepulse on the response to a startling stimulus is measured at only one startling stimulus loudness. This loudness can be at very different parts of the ski slope for different people or other animals: it may be in the steep slope for one person, well into the plateau for another, or even at the bottom of the ski slope below the threshold in others. The effect of PPI is very different depending on what part of the ski slope the loudness represents. A lack of consistent effects in the literature on PPI by drugs and genetics is explained by this difference. Experiments are planned that will investigate the effect of drugs that are similar to those that treat schizophrenia, stress hormones and cannabis on the effect of prepulses on the whole ski slope. This procedure will provide the consistency in results so far absent.