CONTROL CONDITIONS IN THE FEAR-POTENTIATED STARTLE RESPONSE PARADIGM

IN the present study, the fear-potentiated startle response paradigm w as modified in order to investigate the decrease in control startle le vels often observed after administration of anxiolytic drugs. The with in-animal comparison of control startle amplitudes and fear-potentiate d startle amplitudes normally used was replaced by a between-animal co mparison. Moreover, the experimental design was extended with an addit ional control group, a no-shock group. The anxiolytics diazepam and ch lordiazepoxide were used as pharmacological tools. The main findings w ere that both benzodiazepines dose-dependently reduced control startle amplitudes and no-shock startle amplitudes equally, suggesting that s hock-associated contextual cues are not responsible for the drug-induc ed decrease in control startle amplitudes in the fear-potentiated star tle response paradigm.