Startle modification : implications for neuroscience, cognitive science, and clinical science / edited by Michael E. Dawson, Anne M. Schell, Andreas H. Bohmelt.

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Startle modification: introduction and overview / Michael E. Dawson, Anne M. Schell, and Andreas H. Bohmelt -- Startle elicitation: stimulus parameters, recording techniques and quantification / W. Keith Berg and Marie T. Balaban -- Short lead interval startle modification / Lois E. Putnam and Eric J. Vanman -- Neurophysiology and neuropharmacology of startle and its affective modification / Michael Davis, David L. Walker, and Younglim Lee -- Neurophysiology and neuropharmacology of short lead interval startle modification / Neal R. Swerdlow and Mark A. Geyer -- Implications of blink reflex research for theories of attention and consciousness / Steve A. Hackley -- Affect and the startle reflex / Margaret M. Bradley, Bruce N. Cuthbert, and Peter J. Lang -- Affective individual differences, psychopathology and startle reflex modification / Edwin W. Cook III -- Psychopathic traits and intoxicated states: affective concomitants and conceptual links / Christopher J. Patrick and Alan R. Lang -- Schizophrenia spectrum disorders / Kristin S. Cadenhead and David L. Braff -- Startle modification in children and developmental effects / Edward M. Ornitz -- Behavioral analogies of short lead interval startle inhibition / Diane L. Filion, Kimberle A. Kelly, and Erin A. Hazlett -- Event-related potential components and startle / Judith M. Ford and Walton T. Roth -- Startle modification during orienting and Pavlovian conditioning / Ottmar V. Lipp and David A.T. Siddle.

The startle response (response to a loud noise, for instance) is a reflex that is wired into the brain at a very basic level. Although everybody has such a reflex, the strength and quickness of the startle response is modified by a subject's underlying psychoneurological state. The nature of this modification, therefore, is now seen as an accurate, objective measure of very deep neurological processes. This book is a comprehensive volume devoted to startle modification and offers a unique overview of the methods, measurement, physiology and psychology of the phenomenon, particularly modification of the human startle eyeblink. Chapters are written by many of the world's leading investigators in the field and include coverage of elicitation and recording of startle blink, issues in measurement and quantification, the neurophysiological basis of the basic startle response and its modification by attentional and affective processes, psychological processes underlying short and long lead interval modification (including prepulse inhibition), applications of startle modification to the study of psychopathology, including schizophrenia, affective disorders, and psychopathy, developmental processes and relationships with ERPs and behavioural measures of information processing.