Definition
Prepulse inhibition (PPI) is attenuation of a response to a startle-inducing stimulus (e.g., acoustic pulse), when a short duration stimulus of lower magnitude (the prepulse) is presented shortly before. PPI is generally understood to represent a modulation, i.e., adaptation, of sensorimotor gating (Swerdlow et al. 2008), where the preceding stimuli modulates the response to the later stimuli. PPI is typically investigated using acoustic stimuli, with movement as the measurement of startle response. Other stimuli modalities, such as tactile or visual, as well as cross-modal paradigms have been applied as well (Young et al. 2010). The standard procedure for the quantification of PPI involves subtraction of the pulse response when paired with a prepulse to a pulse response without a prepulse. Quantification is most commonly achieved in humans using electromyographic response of the musculature around the eye, specifically orbicularis oculi. The utility of PPI as a research...
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References and Readings
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Porges, E.S., Lamb, D.G. (2018). Pre-Pulse Inhibition. In: Kreutzer, J.S., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_9138
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_9138
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