The effect of tail pinch on the acoustic startle response in rats

A series of 3 experiments was carried out to evaluate the effect of tail pinch (TP) on the amplitude of the acoustic startle response (ASR) in rats. There is a consistent group of pharmacological findings which support the view that the amplitude of the ASR is facilitated by transmission in both dopaminergic and noradrenergic neural systems. It has recently been reported that TP increases cortical norepinephrine release and pars compacta unit activity. It might therefore be expected that TP would facilitate the amplitude of the ASR. This hypothesis was tested in the first experiment. Surprisingly, it was found that TP significantly depressed startle amplitude. In the second experiment if was found that this TP-induced depression in startle amplitude was reduced by damage to the nucleus accumbens and that the amount of reduction correlated with the extent of damage. In the third experiment the generality of the effect of TP on sensorimotor reactivity was evaluated by testing its effect on footshock threshold and airpuff-elicited startle response. TP also depressed responsiveness in these tests. These results are consistent with other observations that the nucleus accumbens plays a role in the modulation of sensorimotor reactivity.