Prepulse inhibition decreases as startle reactivity habituates

In the present study, I investigated the effect of stimulus repetition on human startle eyeblink reflex inhibition (PPI) by a prepulse. Participants were assigned to one of three groups (n = 14 each), in which they received 18 trials of (a) noise startle stimuli presented alone or preceded by 1000-Hz tone prepulses, (b) startle stimuli presented alone, or (c) prepulses presented alone. All participants then received 18 more trials of startle stimuli presented alone or preceded by 1000-Hz tone prepulses, followed by 6 trials of startle stimuli presented alone or preceded by 2000-Hz tone prepulses. As trials progressed, startle eyeblink electromyogram magnitude habituated and PPI decreased. PPI was not affected by the repeated presentation of the prepulses alone but decreased with the repeated presentation of the startle stimulus alone. Changes in the frequency of the prepulse had no significant effect on PPI. These data suggest that the reduction of PPI that is seen across trials is not due to habituation of the prepulse but is related to startle reactivity in control trials, which is reduced by habituation.