Startle potentiation by threat of aversive stimuli and darkness in adolescents: a multi-site study

In recent years, the startle reflex has become an exciting new tool to inve stigate affective responses to aversive stimuli in humans. The popularity o f this methodology is largely based on the substantial amount of animal res earch available on this topic. several procedures have been developed to ex amine startle potentiation in humans, but most studies have been carried ou t in adults and may not be appropriate for children or adolescents. The pre sent study is a multi-site project (Yale University, Harvard University, an d the University of Minnesota) investigating two new procedures to examine the potentiation of startle in adolescents. The subjects were 50 male and f emale aged 13-17 years old. One procedure examined fear-potentiated startle to the threat of an unpleasant airblast directed to the larynx. The second examined the facilitation of startle in darkness. Potentiation was found u sing each procedure and the degree of potentiation was similar across labor atories. These results suggest that both the threat of an airblast and dark ness can reliably be used to examine startle potentiation in young subjects . (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.