Altered emotion-modulated startle in young adults with a family history of alcoholism.
BACKGROUND
Alcoholism risk may be accompanied by poor regulation of emotions, signaling altered central nervous system processes. This study used the emotion-modulated startle paradigm to test the hypothesis that young adults with a positive paternal history of alcoholism (FH+), relative to family-history-negative persons (FH-), have altered emotional reactivity to environmental cues.


METHODS
We tested 30 FH+ and 30 FH-, 15 males and 15 females in each group. Participants completed self-report instruments and interviews and had eye blink electromyograms (EMG) measured to acoustic startle probes while viewing color photographs rated as affectively pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant.


RESULTS
FH- had the expected linear increase in startle magnitude, with eye blink EMG gaining in strength (F = 18, p < 0.0002) from pleasant to neutral to unpleasant slides. In contrast, FH+ did not show EMG potentiation to the unpleasant slides and therefore lacked the same linear trend (F < 1, p > 0.4). Notably, FH groups rated the emotional valence and arousal of the photographs in similar ways. Self-reported negative affect partly accounted for the lack of startle potentiation in FH+, suggesting that startle modulation differences between the groups may be associated with underlying psychological characteristics.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings implicate altered limbic outputs to the startle pathway in FH+ despite normal conscious evaluation of emotional arousal and pleasantness of the slides. This method may provide a useful paradigm for testing processing of emotionally relevant stimuli in relation to risk for alcohol use disorders.
Miranda
Robert
R
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and VA Medical Center, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, USA.
Meyerson
Lori A
LA
Buchanan
Tony W
TW
Lovallo
William R
WR
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013216:Reflex, Startle / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology