Abstract
Prepulse inhibition (PPI) is a suppression of the startle reflex that occurs when an intense startling stimulus is preceded by a weaker 'prepulse' stimulus. PPI deficits have been implicated in the biological bases of schizophrenia and some other neuropsychiatric disorders and proposed as a possible biological marker (endophenotype) for genetic studies. However, little is known about the genetic determination of PPI in humans. We examined acoustic eye-blink startle reflex and PPI in 142 young female twins (40 monozygotic and 31 dizygotic pairs) and conducted a biometrical genetic analysis using structural equation modeling. PPI showed significant heritability suggesting that over 50% of PPI variance in this sample can be attributed to genetic factors. Baseline startle magnitude showed higher heritability (about 70%).
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 45-48 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Journal | Neuroscience Letters |
Volume | 353 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 15 2003 |
Keywords
- Genetics
- Heritability
- Prepulse inhibition
- Sensorimotor gating
- Startle reflex
- Twins