Emotion, novelty, and the startle reflex: Habituation in humans.

Abstract

Previous research with both animal and human subjects has shown that startle reflex magnitude is potentiated in an aversive stimulus context, relative to responses elicited in a neutral or appetitive context. In the present experiment, the same pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral picture stimuli were repeatedly presented to human subjects. Startle reflex habituation was assessed in each stimulus context and was compared with the habituation patterns of heart rate, electrodermal, and facial corrugator muscle responses. All systems showed initial differentiation among affective picture contents and general habituation over trials. The startle reflex alone, however, continued to differentiate among pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant pictures throughout the presentation series. These results suggest that (a) the startle probe reflex is relatively uninfluenced by stimulus novelty, (b) the startle modulatory circuit (identified with amygdala-reticular connections in animals) varies systematically with affective valence, and (c) the modulatory influence is less subject to habituation than is the obligatory startle pathway or responses in other somatic and autonomic systems.

Cites (50)

1. Looking at pictures: Affective, facial, visceral, and behavioral reactions
   LANG, PETER J., GREENWALD, MARK K., BRADLEY, MARGARET M., HAMM, ALFONS O. · 1993 · Psychophysiology
2. Emotion, attention, and the startle reflex
   Lang, Peter J., Bradley, Margaret M., Cuthbert, Bruce N. · 1990 · Psychological Review
3. Habituation: A dual-process theory.
   Groves, Philip M., Thompson, Richard F. · 1970 · Psychological Review
4. Perception and the Conditioned Reflex
   Hay, John C., Sokolov, Ye. N. · 1966 · The American Journal of Psychology
5. Guidelines for Human Electromyographic Research
   Fridlund, Alan J., Cacioppo, John T. · 1986 · Psychophysiology
6. Stevens' Handbook of Experimental Psychology
   2002 · Wiley eBooks
7. Heart-rate change as a component of the orienting response.
   Graham, Frances K., Clifton, Rachel K. · 1966 · Psychological Bulletin
8. Reflex modification in the domain of startle: I. Some empirical findings and their implications for how the nervous system processes sensory input.
   Hoffman, Howard S., Ison, James R. · 1980 · Psychological Review
9. The startle probe response: A new measure of emotion?
   Scott R. Vrana, Ellen L. Spence, Peter J. Lang · 1988 · Journal of Abnormal Psychology
10. Lesions of the amygdala, but not of the cerebellum or red nucleus, block conditioned fear as measured with the potentiated startle paradigm.
    Hitchcock, Janice, Davis, Michael · 1986 · Behavioral Neuroscience

Show all 50 references

Cited by (24)

1. The emotion probe: Studies of motivation and attention.
   Peter J. Lang · 1995 · American Psychologist
2. Emotion and motivation I: Defensive and appetitive reactions in picture processing.
   Bradley, Margaret M., Codispoti, Maurizio, Cuthbert, Bruce N., Lang, Peter J. · 2001 · Emotion
3. The neuroanatomical and neurochemical basis of conditioned fear
   Fendt, M., Fanselow, M.S. · 1999 · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
4. Emotion, motivation, and anxiety: brain mechanisms and psychophysiology
   Lang, Peter J., Bradley, Margaret M., Cuthbert, Bruce N. · 1998 · Biological Psychiatry
5. Natural selective attention: Orienting and emotion
   Bradley, Margaret M. · 2009 · Psychophysiology

See all 406