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Startle modulation studies in autism

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Abstract

We studied acoustic startle response and its modulation by prestimulation and by short-term and long-term habituation in 54 autistic patients and 72 normal age-matched controls. The startle response was measured as the amplitude and onset latency of the integrated orbicularis oculi EMG. There were no consistent significant differences between the autistic and control subjects in startle modulation by inhibitory or facilitatory prestimulation, short-term habituation of startle amplitude, long-term habituation of either startle amplitude or latency, or unmodulated startle amplitude. Differences between autistic and control subjects were limited to prolongation of unmodulated startle onset latencies in the autistics in all of the experimental paradigms (significantp= .005 only in the context of short-term habituation) and a statistically significant (p<.05) slower rate of short-term habituation of startle onset latency in the autistic patients, relative to the controls. Results provide only limited support for hypotheses of brainstem pathophysiology and no support for hypotheses of cerebellar pathophysiology in autism.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Division of Child Psychiatry, and Brain Research Institute, University of California, Los Angeles

    Edward M. Ornitz

  2. Department of Occupational Therapy, State University of New York at Buffalo, Baffalo, USA

    Shelly J. Lane

  3. Department of Psychiatry, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan

    Toshiro Sugiyama

  4. Department of Psychiatry and Department of Biostatistics, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, USA

    Jean de Traversay

Authors
  1. Edward M. Ornitz
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  2. Shelly J. Lane
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  3. Toshiro Sugiyama
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  4. Jean de Traversay
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Additional information

This research was supported by NIMH grant MH-39065 and the generous support of the Alice and Julius Kantor Charitable Trust. Jean de Traversay was supported by the Fonds de la Recherche en Santé du Québec.

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Ornitz, E.M., Lane, S.J., Sugiyama, T. et al. Startle modulation studies in autism. J Autism Dev Disord 23, 619–637 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01046105

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