“Normal” personality correlates of sensorimotor, cognitive, and visuospatial gating

doi:10.1016/0006-3223(94)00138-S

Biological Psychiatry

Volume 37, Issue 5, 1 March 1995, Pages 286-299

https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-3223(94)00138-S Get rights and content

Specific psychiatric disorders are characterized by impaired selective inhibition or “gating” of responses to sensory or cognitive information. Less is known about gating differences among normal individuals. We tested carefully screened controls in measures of central inhibition: prepulse inhibition (PPI) of startle, the Stroop test, and negative priming (NP). Subjects were defined as “normal” or “psychosis prone,” based on theoretically and empirically derived MMPI criteria. Performance on all measures by “psychosis-prone” individuals suggested reduced sensorimotor gating and/or increased cognitive or visual interference. Performance was most impaired in individuals scoring highest on the MMPI Goldberg Index, which was originally designed to distinguish “psychotic” from “neurotic” inpatients. Inhibition in Stroop and NP was correlated across all subjects, but PPI was not correlated with other measures. Gender differences were noted in PPI (male > female), but not Stroop or NP. Performance deteriorated with age in Stroop and NP, but not PPI. The results are discussed as they relate to psychophysical and neural correlates of normal personality dimensions.

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Sex differences are present in psychiatric disorders associated with disrupted dopamine function, and thus, sex differences in dopamine neurobiology may underlie these clinical disparities. In this chapter, we review sex differences in the dopaminergic system with a focus on substance use disorders, especially tobacco smoking, as our exemplar disorder. This chapter is organized into five sections describing sex differences in the dopaminergic system: (1) neurobiology, (2) role of sex hormones, (3) genetic underpinnings, (4) cognitive function, and (5) influence on addiction. In each section, we provide an overview of the topic area, summarize sex differences identified to date, highlight addiction research, especially clinical neuroimaging studies, and suggest avenues for future research.
Acoustic startle response and its modulation in schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder in Asian subjects
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The acoustic startle response (ASR) and its modulation, including prepulse inhibition (PPI), are considered to be promising neurophysiological indices for translational research in psychiatry. Impairment of the PPI has been reported in several psychiatric disorders, but particularly in schizophrenia, where PPI is considered to be a candidate endophenotype of the disorder. Although the profiles of the ASR differ between races, recent studies of single ethnicity samples in Asia were in accord with a number of studies from Western countries, in reporting that patients with schizophrenia exhibit impaired PPI.
The PPI of the ASR is known to develop before 8 years of age, and PPI impairment has only been reported in adults (not children) with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which involves atypical features that are present from early development. Recent Asian studies of children with ASD suggest that comprehensive investigation of the ASR and its modulation, including the startle response to weak startle stimuli, peak startle latency, and PPI, may contribute to an understanding of the impairment of the neural circuitry in children with ASD and its comorbid behavioral problems.
In this review, we review recent findings on the ASR and its modulation from Asian countries, and discuss its potential use for studying sensorimotor gating and its relationship to schizophrenia and ASD.
In conclusion, the ASR and its modulation can provide a well-established global neurophysiological index for translational research in psychiatric disorders. Future studies investigating the development of sensorimotor gating in early development may contribute to prevention of psychiatric disorders.
Sexually dimorphic deficits of prepulse inhibition in patients with major depressive disorder and their relationship to symptoms: A large single ethnicity study
2017, Journal of Affective Disorders
Sensorimotor gating deficits as measured by prepulse inhibition (PPI) of acoustic startle reflex have been repeatedly observed in patients with schizophrenia. However, studies investigating PPI in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) are scarce, and this issue remains to be elucidated.
Subjects were 221 patients with MDD and 250 age-matched healthy comparison subjects. Depressive symptoms were assessed by the 21-item version of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D21), and the scores were divided into six factors. Thirty-five trials of startle reflex to pulse alone and pulse with prepulse were measured by electromyography. Startle magnitude, habituation, and PPI were compared between patients and comparisons stratified by sex. Relationships of startle measures to symptoms and antidepressant medication were assessed.
Male patients showed significantly reduced PPI compared to male comparisons, while no significant PPI difference was found between female patients and comparisons. HAM-D21 total score and several subscales were significantly correlated with PPI only in male patients. The effect of antidepressant medication was not significant for either male or female patients.
Possible effects of the menstrual cycle could not be excluded among female subjects.
These findings suggest that male patients with MDD show sensorimotor gating deficits in a state-dependent manner. However, we obtained no evidence for such abnormalities in female patients with MDD.
Sensorimotor gating in healthy adults tested over a 15 year period
2017, Biological Psychology
Prepulse inhibition (PPI) of startle, an operational measure of sensorimotor gating, is used to study normal and pathological brain function. From 2001 to 2016, we screened healthy subjects (HS) to establish their suitability for tests of drug effects on PPI. Because of the size and systematic characterization of this sample across variables of relevance to PPI, we now report these screening results.
Acoustic startle and PPI were assessed in HS to identify those eligible for studies of drug effects on PPI from 2001 to 2016, yielding 457 “eligible” subjects.
Data confirmed the consistency of PPI across this 15-year period, and supported the role of several variables previously reported to moderate either startle or PPI.
Startle and PPI are robust physiological measures that are predictably moderated by specific physiological variables in healthy adults. As such, these measures serve as robust markers of neurobiological processes in healthy and patient populations.
Sensorimotor gating, cannabis use and the risk of psychosis
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Sensorimotor gating, measured as the modification of eye blink startle reflexes to loud acoustic stimuli by quieter preceding stimuli, is altered in those with psychosis, their relatives and those at high clinical risk for psychosis. Alterations have also been shown in cannabis users, albeit to a lesser extent, and cannabis is a known risk factor for the onset of psychosis in clinically and genetically susceptible individuals.
We examined the interaction between clinical risk for psychosis and cannabis use on sensorimotor gating, both Prepulse Inhibition (PPI) and Prepulse Facilitation (PPF). We tested PPI and PPF in participants with an At Risk Mental State (ARMS) for psychosis and a matched control group. Both groups included a proportion of subjects who had recently used cannabis, as confirmed by urinary drug screening (UDS) on the day of testing. We found that ARMS participants showed reduced PPF and PPI relative to controls, the latter driven by a group by cannabis use interaction, with recent use reducing PPI in ARMS participants but not in controls. When the analysis was limited to UDS-negative participants there was significantly reduced PPF in ARMS subjects relative to controls, but no differences in PPI. Within the ARMS group reduced sensorimotor gating, measured by both PPI and PPF, related to reduced overall level of function.
Cannabis use in clinical high risk individuals may increase the risk of psychosis in part through worsening PPI, while PPF is altered in ARMS individuals irrespective of cannabis use. This develops our understanding of cognitive mechanisms leading to the experience of aberrant perceptual phenomena and the subsequent development of psychotic symptoms.
Characterizing cannabis-induced psychosis: A study with prepulse inhibition of the startle reflex
2014, Psychiatry Research
Cannabis-induced psychotic disorder (CIPD) refers to psychotic symptoms that arise in the context of cannabis intoxication. Prepulse inhibition (PPI) deficits have been extensively identified in schizophrenia and in cannabis abusers. We aimed to characterize PPI in CIPD patients. We used a sample of 48 CIPD patients, 54 schizophrenia patients and cannabis abuse (SCHZ), 44 cannabis dependents (CD), and 44 controls. CIPD, SCHZ and CD were abstinent of cannabis consumption for 9 months. Participants were assessed with PPI at 30, 60, and 120 ms. At 30 ms, CIPD showed lower PPI levels than controls, and SCHZ obtained worse functioning than controls and CD. At 60 ms, only SCHZ exhibited worse PPI percentages (of object) than controls. Finally, at 120 ms, CIPD showed higher PPI levels than SCHZ, and SCHZ obtained lower percentages than controls. We found that CIPD and SCHZ patients showed deficits at the most pre-attentional levels, whereas CIPD patients performed better than SCHZ at higher attentional levels. These results suggest that CIPD constitutes a different group of patients than that of SCHZ. Deficits in PPI functioning at 30 ms could be a useful psychophysiological measure to detect CIPD patients, who are frequently confused with cannabis abusers whose symptoms may mimic that of schizophrenia.

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: NRS was supported by MH 48381. MAG was supported by MH 00188. This work was also supported by MH 42228 (DLB, MAG, NRS.).

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Original article“Normal” personality correlates of sensorimotor, cognitive, and visuospatial gating

Personality & Individual Differences

Personality & Individual Differences

Biol Psychiatry

Physiol Behav

Neuropsychologia

Personality & Individual Differences

A preliminary assessment of sensorimotor gating in patients with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)

Biol Psychiatry

Personality & Individual Differences

The hippocampus and parahippocampus in schizophrenic, suicide, and control brains

Arch Gen Psychiatry

Clinical-pathologic correlation in Huntington's Disease

Neurology

Local cerebral glucose metabolic rates in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Arch Gen Psychiatry

Individual differences in cognitive processes: Towards an explanation of schizophrenic symptomatology

Br J Psychol

Individual differences in negative priming: relations with schizotypal personalty traits

Br J Psychol

Evidence of reduced “cognitive inhibition” in schizophrenia

Br J Clin Psychol

Individual differences in schizotypy as reflected in measures of cognitive inhibition

Br J Clin Psychol

Gating and habituation of the startle reflex in schizophrenic patients

Arch Gen Psychiatry

Prestimulus effects on human startle reflex in normals and schizophrenics

Psychophysiology

On the abnormality of normal comparison groups: the identification of psychosisproneness and substance abuse in putative normal research subjects

Am J Psychiatry

Impaired startle prepulse inhibition and habituation in schizotypal patients

Am J Psychiatry

Structural and functional studies Gilles de la Tourette syndrome

Rev Neurol

Lateralization of the “negative priming” effect: relationships with schizotypy and with gender

Br J Psychol

Hippocampal pyramidal cell disarray in schizophrenia as a bilateral phenomenon

Arch Gen Psychiatry

Strategies for visual comparison and representation: individual differences

Construct validity in psychological tests

Psychol Bull

A primary acoustic startle circuit: lesion and stimulation studies

J Neurosci

Obsessional states: anxiety disorders or schizotypes? An information processing and personality assessment

Psychol Med

Original article
“Normal” personality correlates of sensorimotor, cognitive, and visuospatial gating