Sensory gating in chronic posttraumatic stress disorder: reduced auditory P50 suppression in combat veterans.
Biol Psychiatry
; 46(12): 1656-64, 1999 Dec 15.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-10624547
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may be associated with a general impairment of cognitive function that extends beyond the processing of trauma-specific stimuli. Suppression of the auditory P50 response to repeated stimuli occurs in normal subjects and reflects the central nervous system's ability to screen out repetitive stimuli, a phenomenon referred to as sensory gating. This study examines P50 sensory gating to nonstartle auditory stimuli in PTSD subjects and normal controls.METHODS:
P50 generation and gating were studied using a conditioning/testing paradigm in 15 male subjects with PTSD and 12 male controls. P50 test/conditioning (T/C) ratios were estimated using the Singular Value Decomposition method.RESULTS:
The amplitude of the P50 response to the conditioning stimulus did not differ in subjects with PTSD compared to normal controls. The P50 T/C ratio is increased in PTSD subjects (mean = .408, SD = .275) as compared to the controls (mean = .213, SD = .126, two tailed t, p = .024).CONCLUSIONS:
This study provides evidence that PTSD is associated with impaired gating to nonstartle trauma-neutral auditory stimuli.
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Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Auditory Threshold
/
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic
/
Veterans
/
Brain
/
Evoked Potentials, Auditory
/
Habituation, Psychophysiologic
Type of study:
Observational_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Country/Region as subject:
America do norte
/
Asia
Language:
En
Journal:
Biol Psychiatry
Year:
1999
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country: