Startle gating in antipsychotic-naïve first episode schizophrenia patients: one ear is better than two

Prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the startle reflex to binaural prepulse stimuli is reliably reported to be reduced in patients with schizophrenia. Monaural acoustic prestimuli produce more inhibition of the eye blink reflex than binaural prestimuli in healthy people. The effect of monaural prestimulation on reflex inhibition in patients with schizophrenia is not known. In this study, inhibition of the acoustic startle response by monaural and binaural acoustic prestimuli was assessed in 20 antipsychotic-naïve first episode schizophrenia patients and compared with 20 age and sex-matched healthy subjects. The results revealed less PPI, especially with binaural prestimuli, in patients than healthy subjects but both groups showed more PPI with monaural than binaural prestimuli. It is concluded that first episode schizophrenia patients show deficient sensorimotor gating but they are not impaired in the mechanism underlying stronger PPI with monaural than binaural prepulses.