Startle Modification
Implications for Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, and Clinical Science

A comprehensive volume devoted to startle modification.

Michael E. Dawson (Edited by), Anne M. Schell (Edited by), Andreas H. Bohmelt (Edited by)

9780521087896, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 11 December 2008

400 pages, 53 b/w illus. 1 table
21 x 15 x 2.1 cm, 0.59 kg

"...this book succeeds because it is one of the first texts to comprehensively review this newly emergent and important research area. It provides an excellent starting point for both the graduate student and experienced researcher wishing to incorporate startle modification procedures in to their work...I strongly urge researchers interested in the interrelationships between attentional and affective processes but who have not explored the startle modification paradigm, to acquire a copy of this book to immerse themselves into this fascinating area of study." Contemporary Psychology, APA Review of Books

The startle response (response to a loud noise, for instance) is a reflex that is wired into the brain at a very basic level. Although everybody has such a reflex, the strength and quickness of the startle response is modified by a subject's underlying psychoneurological state. The nature of this modification, therefore, is now seen as an accurate, objective measure of very deep neurological processes. This book is a comprehensive volume devoted to startle modification and offers a unique overview of the methods, measurement, physiology and psychology of the phenomenon, particularly modification of the human startle eyeblink. Chapters are written by many of the world's leading investigators in the field and include coverage of elicitation and recording of startle blink, issues in measurement and quantification, the neurophysiological basis of the basic startle response and its modification by attentional and affective processes, psychological processes underlying short and long lead interval modification (including prepulse inhibition), applications of startle modification to the study of psychopathology, including schizophrenia, affective disorders, and psychopathy, developmental processes and relationships with ERPs and behavioural measures of information processing.

List of contributors
Preface
Prologue Howard S. Hoffman
Part I. Basic Paradigms, Methods and Phenomena: 1. Startle modification: introduction and overview Michael E. Dawson, Anne M. Schell and Andreas H. Boehmëlt
2. Startle elicitation: stimulus parameters, recording techniques, and quantification W. Keith Berg and Marie T. Balaban
3. Short lead interval modification Terry D. Blumenthal
4. Startle modification at long lead intervals Lois E. Putnam and Eric J. Vanman
Part II. Physiological Mediation of Startle Modification: 5. Neurophysiology and neuropharmacology of startle modification and its affective modification Michael Davis, David L. Walker and Younglim Lee
6. Neurophysiology and neuropharmacology of short lead interval startle modification Neal Swerdlow and Mark A. Geyer
Part III. Psychological Mediation of Startle Modification: 7. Blink reflex studies of attention and consciousness Steven Hackley
8. Affect and the startle reflex: motivation in perception Margaret M. Bradley, Bruce N. Cuthbert and Peter J. Lang
Part IV. Individual Differences and Startle Modification: 9. Affective individual differences, psychopathology, and startle reflex modification Edwin W. Cook
10. Psychopathic traits and intoxicated states: affective concomitants and conceptual links Christopher J. Patrick and Alan R. Lang
11. Schizophrenia spectrum disorders Kristin S. Cadenhead and David L. Braff
12. Startle modification in children and developmental effects Edward M. Ornitz
Part V. Relationships with Other Paradigms and Measures: 13. Behavioral correlates of startle inhibition Diane L. Filion, Kimberle A. Kelly and Erin A. Hazlett
14. Event related potential (ERP) components and startle Judith M. Ford and Walton T. Roth
15. Startle modification during orienting and Pavlovian conditioning Ottmar Lipp and David Siddle
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Neurosciences [PSAN], Neurology & clinical neurophysiology [MJN], Cognition & cognitive psychology [JMR]