Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword by Stephen W. Porges
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Contributors
- 1 Capturing the Dynamic Endophenotype: A Developmental Psychophysiological Manifesto
- SECTION ONE CENTRAL SYSTEM: THEORY, METHODS, AND MEASURES
- SECTION TWO AUTONOMIC AND PERIPHERAL SYSTEMS: THEORY, METHODS, AND MEASURES
- 7 Infant Heart Rate: A Developmental Psychophysiological Perspective
- 8 Examining Cognitive Development Using Psychophysiological Correlates: Evidence of a Hierarchy of Future-Oriented Processes Across Measures
- 9 Measuring the Electromyographic Startle Response: Developmental Issues and Findings
- 10 The Measurement of Electrodermal Activity in Children
- SECTION THREE NEUROENDOCRINE SYSTEM: THEORY, METHODS, AND MEASURES
- SECTION FOUR DATA ACQUISITION, REDUCTION, ANALYSIS, AND INTERPRETATION: CONSIDERATIONS AND CAVEATS
- Index
- References
9 - Measuring the Electromyographic Startle Response: Developmental Issues and Findings
from SECTION TWO - AUTONOMIC AND PERIPHERAL SYSTEMS: THEORY, METHODS, AND MEASURES
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword by Stephen W. Porges
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Contributors
- 1 Capturing the Dynamic Endophenotype: A Developmental Psychophysiological Manifesto
- SECTION ONE CENTRAL SYSTEM: THEORY, METHODS, AND MEASURES
- SECTION TWO AUTONOMIC AND PERIPHERAL SYSTEMS: THEORY, METHODS, AND MEASURES
- 7 Infant Heart Rate: A Developmental Psychophysiological Perspective
- 8 Examining Cognitive Development Using Psychophysiological Correlates: Evidence of a Hierarchy of Future-Oriented Processes Across Measures
- 9 Measuring the Electromyographic Startle Response: Developmental Issues and Findings
- 10 The Measurement of Electrodermal Activity in Children
- SECTION THREE NEUROENDOCRINE SYSTEM: THEORY, METHODS, AND MEASURES
- SECTION FOUR DATA ACQUISITION, REDUCTION, ANALYSIS, AND INTERPRETATION: CONSIDERATIONS AND CAVEATS
- Index
- References
Summary
INTRODUCTION
A sudden noise occurs while you are concentrating and you respond quickly and automatically – your body muscles flex, your eyes blink, and your facial expression registers a grimace of surprise. You have just experienced a startle reflex. The startle reflex (or startle response) is commonly measured in research studies by a blink response in humans, elicited by some startling stimulus such as a loud noise. The blink response is an early and reliable component of startle in humans. It occurs to stimuli in various sensory modalities (e.g., auditory, visual, cutaneous) and often begins within 30 ms after the onset of a sudden and intense stimulus.
The word “reflex” often seems to bring to mind a stable, simple, and unchanging response elicited under specific circumstances. But in the case of the startle reflex, this view is overly simplistic. Though this reflex can be reliably elicited, it turns out to also be highly modifiable by an extensive variety of stimuli, circumstances, and clinical conditions. The wide range of studies examining this process of modification is generally referred to as startle modification research. Fundamentally, the paradigms employed in this research involve situations in which the startle reflex is modulated or modified in amplitude, latency, or probability by another non-startling variable of interest. The remarkably wide range of factors that can modify startle is what has generated such a broad interest in its study.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Developmental PsychophysiologyTheory, Systems, and Methods, pp. 257 - 285Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007
References
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