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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 99/3/1493    most recent 00959.2007v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Neumeister, H. Articles by Preuss, T. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Neumeister, H. Articles by Preuss, T.

Behavioral and Physiological Characterization of Sensorimotor Gating in the Goldfish Startle Response

Dominick Purpura Department of Neuroscience, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York

Submitted 25 August 2007; accepted in final form 12 January 2008

Prepulse inhibition (PPI) is typically associated with an attenuation of auditory startle behavior in mammals and is presumably mediated within the brainstem startle circuit. However, the inhibitory mechanisms underlying PPI are not yet clear. We addressed this question with complementary behavioral and in vivo electrophysiological experiments in the startle escape circuit of goldfish, the Mauthner cell (M-cell) system. In the behavioral experiments we observed a 77.5% attenuation (PPI) of startle escape probability following auditory prepulse–pulse stimulation. The PPI effect was observed for prepulse–pulse interstimulus intervals (ISIs) ranging from 20 to 600 ms and its magnitude depended linearly on prepulse intensity over a range of 14 dB. Electrophysiological recordings of synaptic responses to a sound pulse in the M-cell, which is the sensorimotor neuron initiating startle escapes, showed a 21% reduction in amplitude of the dendritic postsynaptic potential (PSP) and a 23% reduction of the somatic PSP following a prepulse. In addition, a prepulse evoked a long-lasting (500 ms) decrease in M-cell excitability indicated by 1) an increased threshold current, 2) an inhibitory shunt of the action potential (AP), and 3) by a linearized M-cell membrane, which effectively impedes M-cell AP generation. Comparing the magnitude and kinetics of inhibitory shunts evoked by a prepulse in the M-cell dendrite and soma revealed a disproportionately larger and longer-lasting inhibition in the dendrite. These results suggest that the observed PPI-type attenuation of startle behavior can be correlated to distinct postsynaptic mechanisms mediated primarily at the M-cell lateral dendrite.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				S. A. Weiss, T. Preuss, and D. S. Faber A role of electrical inhibition in sensorimotor integration PNAS, November 18, 2008; 105(46): 18047 - 18052. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]