Abstract
Female Maudsley Reactive (MR/Har) and Nonreactive (MNRA/Har) rats were tested for initial acoustic startle reactivity and within-session startle habituation. Subjects were exposed in each of five weekly sessions to 12 acoustic startle noise bursts at a 20-s interstimulus interval, a procedure in which genetically heterogeneous Sprague Dawley rats have been shown to exhibit robust within-session habituation. Although initial startle reactivity was comparable in the two strains, significant differences in withinssession habituation were observed. Specifically, MR/Har rats were observed to exhibit substantial within-session habituation to these acoustic stimuli, while rats of the MNRA/Har strain exhibited little, if any, habituation to these repeated acoustic stimuli. The basis for this dramatic difference in within-session startle habituation in these Maudsley rats is at present unexplained and under investigation.
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This work was supported in part by the WSU Biomedical Research Award Program, the American Heart Association of Michigan Grant-in-Aid Program, the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association Research Starter Grant and MH 42501-01 to R.L.C., and the National Science Foundation to G.M.H.
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Commissaris, R.L., Harrington, G.M., Baginski, T.J. et al. MR/Har and MNRA/Har Maudsley rat strains: Differences in acoustic startle habituation. Behav Genet 18, 663–669 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01066848
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01066848