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Updated: Aug 4, 2026

Habituation and Prepulse Inhibition of Acoustic Startle in Rodents
Published on: September 1, 2011
Neurochemical modulation of sensory-motor reactivity: acoustic and tactile startle reflexes
Abstract:
The present review argues that the startle reflex is particularly well suited as a model system to analyze how drugs alter stimulus reactivity and reflex excitability. It then reviews all the literature to date on how drugs or lesions that are thought to alter neurochemical transmitter systems affect acoustic and/or tactile startle. Hypotheses are presented to account for how serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, acetylcholine, and opiates modulate startle. Effects on startle plasticity such as habituation, sensitization, and potentiation resulting from prior associative learning are also included.
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