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The Effects of Age and Prestimulus Duration upon Reflex Inhibition
Author(s) -
Harbin Thomas J.,
Keith Berg W.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.1983.tb00926.x
Subject(s) - psychology , reflex , heart rate , audiology , duration (music) , developmental psychology , blood pressure , neuroscience , medicine , art , literature
Reflex inhibition was investigated in young and elderly subjects as a function of prestimulus duration. In Experiment 1, tone prestimuli of 20 and 200 msec duration were presented at ISIs of 60, 120, 240, and 420 msec before the reflex‐eliciting, periorbital airpuff. Both age groups evidenced more eyeblink inhibition with the longer prestimulus. The heart rate response was primarily decelerative in both age groups. In young subjects, the initial deceleration was augmented by the prestimulus, particularly for the 200‐msec prestimulus, whereas the elderly heart rate response was unaffected. In Experiment 2, a gap in a continuous tone served as the prestimulus. In both young and elderly subjects, eyeblink inhibition increased as gap duration increased from 10 to 80 msec. The longest gap (120 msec) produced the most inhibition in the elderly, while inhibition decreased somewhat in young subjects between the 80 and 120 msec gaps. Heart rate was not affected by the gap prestimuli in either group. It was proposed that reflex inhibition is, in part, a function of the onset and offset transients of the prestimulus. As prestimulus duration is increased and, consequently, the two transients become more separated in time, their effects upon the reflex may become progressively more independent. The discrepancy between the PS effects upon eyeblink and HR in the elderly is probably due to a decline in HR response plasticity rather than central nervous system processes involved in reflex inhibition.