title: Habituation of acoustic startle in rats--a functional ablation study.
abstract: Data from lesion studies data indicate that the removal of the medial cerebellum prevents acquisition but not retention of long-term habituation (LTH) of the acoustic startle response (ASR). The spreading depression (SD) of the vermis was used to examine under more functional conditions the build-up of LTH of the ASR in Wistar rats. Our findings showed that reversible blockade of the vermis during training disrupted LTH of the ASR without changing within-trials habituation. In contrast to previous data, the present results suggest that SD strongly affects the amplitude of the startle response. The data are discussed in respect to a role of the vermis in the control of emotional behaviour in animals.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Functional Neurochemistry, P. K. Anokhin Institute of Normal Physiology, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Moscow.
authors.forename: Z I
authors.initials: ZI
authors.lastname: Storozeva
authors.forename: M V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Pletnicov
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000502:physiology*; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013216:Reflex, Startle / Q000502:physiology*; D012153:Retention, Psychology / Q000502:physiology