Sex differences in sensorimotor gating of the human startle reflex: all smoke?
BACKGROUND
A recent report described sex differences in the effects of nicotine use and withdrawal on prepulse inhibition of acoustic startle (PPI), but no sex differences in PPI in non-smokers.


OBJECTIVE
To determine whether previously reported male>female acoustic PPI reflect sex differences in smoking effects on PPI, rather than simple sex differences in the regulation of PPI. A retrospective analyses of >600 carefully screened normals tested over the past 12 years was completed.


RESULTS
Male>female acoustic PPI was detected in analyses that included: 1) all subjects; or 2) self-declared non-smokers.


CONCLUSIONS
Sex differences in PPI cannot be accounted for by smoking history, because they are present across a large sample of non-smoking normal controls.
Swerdlow
N R
NR
Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0804, USA. nswerdlow@ucsd.edu
Geyer
M A
MA
Hartman
P L
PL
Sprock
J
J
Auerbach
P P
PP
Cadenhead
K
K
Perry
W
W
Braff
D L
DL
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013216:Reflex, Startle / Q000502:physiology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D012907:Smoking / Q000523:psychology*