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Purpose
An acoustic startle model of sensorimotor gating, in which a weak acoustic stimulus (the pre-pulse) is used to decrease the reflex response (startle) produced
by a second, more intense, stimulus (the pulse) in mice. Pre-pulse inhibition (PPI) provides an operational measure of sensorimotor gating which reflects the ability
of an animal to inhibit sensory information properly. Several clinical studies have shown that schizophrenic patients have a reduced PPI. The lack of sufficient sensory gating mechanism is thought to lead to an overflow of the sensory stimulation and disintegration of the cognitive functions. The startle reflex paradigm is therefore largely used to assess the effects of putative anti-psychotics and to explore genetic and neurobiological mechanisms underlying behaviours of relevance to psychosis (Geyer, 1999; Ouagazzal et al., 2001).
